This weekend was arranged to fit in with the lightweight show that was being put on in Ashford-in-the-water and not wanting to spend the whole weekend on one site, it was decided to do a full backpack and take in the show on the Saturday.
It was also a chance to test out some of the equipment I maybe taking to Scotland in May.
Monyash was decided as the best place to start out from to have a good walk on the Friday, to then give us a short walk in to the show on the Saturday.
The Friday didn't start to well, when my pocket rocket didn't want to connect with the Coleman's Gas canister I had brought for the weekend. After some heavy handed tightening I finally got the stove to work.
This problem has happened on a couple of occasions and I think one of these days , I'm going to strip the thread off the stove. Maybe it's time for a new one.
Our intended route was to go north from Monyash, through Deepdale and Monsal Dale then get up onto the edges above Great Longstone, then onto the Eastern edges above Curbar and Baslow.
We followed the route until just West of Baslow; where my legs decided that they didn't fancy a climb up onto the edges, so we dropped down in to Baslow and made our way to the little shop/cafe just outside Chatsworth Park.
By now it had started raining so it was on with the waterproofs. We took the lower path through Chatsworth to the Robin Hood Pub and then up to the Eric Byne Campsite.
In total we covered just under 13 miles; which wasn't bad for a first day's walk for many months.
The site was empty where we arrived but this was to change over the next few hours.
Anyone who knows the Eric Byne, will know that it is a massive field, room for probably 200+ tents. So why this it that when a group of D.O.E's arrive; they have to camp right next to us. Not only this but as the evening wore on more groups arrived and set up around us.
I now know how Custer felt.
They were a very noisy bunch; I had my MP3 player going most of the evening and then earplugs during the night, so missed most of the problems.
Next morning; Keith told me, that the noise was so bad that he had left his tent and bivvyed in the next field to get away from them.
There were about 50-60 D.O.E's all around us, so we had a quick breakfast and set off for the lightweight show.
The route was back into Chatsworth but this time taking the higher level over Dobb Edge then down to the main house.
Going through the park we saw some deer and I had a 'johnny Kingdom' moment trying to creep up on them to get a better picture. I was using a big boulder to screen myself but by the time I got there they had run away (I need to work on that!).
After this we walked through Edensor village to Bakewell and a slight detour to get an original Bakewell pudding for SWMBO and then on to the lightweight show.
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