Walking in the Peak District

Sheep up in the peaks, enjoying the view

We only had about two weeks of really cold weather this winter, and only really two snowfalls (at least in London).  Dave was really keen to see some snow, having never really spent much time in it, so I think he was particularly excited when we decided to go walking in the Peak District.  Especially with a big snowfall having fallen a week earlier.  

The Peak District National Park, near Wetton

The icicles tinkled in the breeze

I was monitoring the weather report quite closely in the week leading up to our trip, as it looked like the route to our hotel went right through the heart of the national park and I wasn't sure about our non-existent snow driving skills.  Especially given no one seems to use snow chains in this country, they just drive on top of the snow.  I guess they go a little slower than normal, but that's about their only concession to the elements.

We were fooled a little by the name of this park, Peak District, seems to conjure up pictures of towering mountains, and wild, untouched forest.  But the highest "peak" is only 600m high, and, at least where we were, most of the landscape seems to be farmland.  It think the wildest animal you may come across is a sheep with a sore foot.  The name of the park actually comes from an Old English word, paec, which just means hill.  

The national park is squeezed in between Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham, not exactly picturesque cities.  But I think that is what makes this national park so important, it gave those people living in these big industrialised cities somewhere to escape to.  

Sheep in the fields

Coal also used to be mined here

Before it was a National Park though, it was very much a no-go area for the workers, private land reserved for grouse hunting, sheep farming and water catchment ares.  But the English really like their "rambling" and so they began to trespass on the land, figuring if a lot of them did it together, the gamekeepers guarding the land couldn't shoot them all at once.  One trespass had 500 people taking to the peaks and when the ringleaders of that event were given gaol sentences of a couple of months, for something which is not technically illegal, public opinion turned against the landowners, and the right to roam was born for the English rambler.  

And it's great what they achieved, because you are now allowed to basically wander over farmer's fields and all the stiles and gates are kept in really good condition.  I always thought Australians were a nation of people who enjoy the outdoors, but they have nothing on the English rambler.  Even in the dead of winter there were a surprising number of people out and about in the hills.

A but wilder, looking down the Manifold Valley

A lone tree 

The national parks here are a funny thing, we were in the southern region of the park, and were surprised to see so much farmland in what was meant to be national park.  The Peak District National Park was formed in 1951 and was the first one in the British isles, but a long time after the first in Australia, being in 1879.  I'm still not sure why there are farms throughout the national park here, but it seems that even those farms are now protected, and a lot of the land within the park is still owned by private landowners.  So definitely a different feel to the wild, remote national parks in Australia.  

Walking along the Manifold Valley, avoiding the ice path in the middle

I've found a great series of walking guides for the UK, they are the pathfinder guides, and they give you topographic maps and detailed walking routes in almost every location in the UK.  So having picked a good walk, the Manifold Valley, of only 10kms we thought we were in for a good few hours.  It was a bit dicey getting the the start of the walk, a tiny little village of Wetton, as the sat nav didn't seem to have any option to chose main roads only, and not tiny little goat tracks that it constantly tried to send us down.  All of which were covered in snow, I might add, and rather steep.  

The Manifold River

After inching our way down one particularly steep and snow-covered road we arrived at the valley floor, and the village.  Parking was also a challenge as the car park was covered in a thick sheet of ice, which increased the degree of difficulty of just  exiting the car.  Lucky for us it was another beautiful day in England, not a cloud in the sky, and no wind to speak of.  I do wonder what we would have done if it had been raining or snowing.  They have this thing here called freezing rain, which is not sleet (as you might think) but instead rain, that because of the temperature inversions, turns to ice as soon as it hits the ground.  That causes a lot of accidents on the motorways as you can imagine.

Stalactites in Wetton

The walls covered in ice-mucus

But anyway, our day could not have been more perfect.  One of the famous walks to do in this region is along the Dove valley, but the one we did runs parallel, is quieter and has very similar scenery.  It was really a walk of two halves.  

Starting in Wetton, we were immediately in the peaks, though still only 300-400m high, which is really ridiculously low.  Here everything was frozen, stalactites hanging from every available surface, and each blade of grass enclosed in it's own ice sheath.  Definitely a good snow introduction. 

The rolling hills of the Peak District, covered in snow, with our awesome new walking guide

A single blade of grass, encased in ice

It was here that we also discovered one of the difficulties with the lack of snow we had been getting.  The snow we were walking on was from about a week ago, and what with the warm days and cold nights a thick crust had formed, making it quite difficult to keep your balance.  Though I think this is partly due to lack of experience, as other people we saw seemed to have no difficulties striding across this ice sheet.  

The second half was much easier, after dropping down off the peaks we followed the Manifold River for about 5kms.  This part of the walk was created in 1937 and it follows the old Leek and Manifold Light Railway, which used to carry milk and a few tourists, but was only around for about 30 

Thor's cave in the hill, looking quite symmetrical

years, from 1904.  It's about halfway down the river that you come across an old mill, which used to ground corn until it closed in 1857.  And here is where we truly appreciate the rambling in England, being able to stop here for a warm cup of tea and a big slice of cake really felt luxurious, and made the second half of the walk a lot easier.

The entrance to Thor's cave

Just after our tea break, we round a corner and looking up you can see Thor's Cave, in a hill rising up from the river.  Archaeological excavations have shown that this cave was used in prehistoric times, as you can imagine, it was a massive cave, and close to water too.  I was pretty keen to get up to this cave, to see where real cavemen lived would have been a treat.  Unfortunately a lot of people before us had the same idea, and the staircase was now a frozen waterfall.  There were one or two points where we thought we may be stuck, but by throwing ourselves into the undergrowth we could inch closer to the cave.  In the end we were defeated, a combination of a sheer cliff and a frozen waterfall, meant that the closest we could get was about 20m from the entrance, but it was impossible to get inside.  And now we had a frozen waterfall to walk back down.

This was a particularly hard section to navigate, steep and incredibly icy, walking right next to the wall seemed to help

In the end we skirted around another hill and then it was just a matter of a few more fields, and a few more icy encounters, before Wetton came back into view.  All in all a great walk and then our nights stay in a luxurious hotel in Hope with an incredible dinner, made the sore muscles less painful. 

Ice forming in the Manifold River

Walking along the Wetton roads