Stoney middleton

Up and out in time to play Popmaster in the car. Better than we managed several days in Cornwall. Gave ourselves a limited time visit to Decathlon..

...which proved very useful later on.. and Ikea

.. which hopefully will prove useful soon (although already used the vacuum bags after I discovered why it's not a good idea to be lazy and chuck them out of the loft hatch).

Ikea milkshakes are yummy. More so than the hotdogs, but I'm still glad I had one as it was ages to the picnic. Got stuck in a Bank Holiday jam just after Chesterfield. Through the old haunts of Belper and Calver and then found a spot to abandon the car in Stoney Middleton. We'd chosen to do the shortest cache series I could find. 4ish miles. I failed, however, to mention any height gain that may occur during the walk.

So, off on the Stoney Stroll. Should be 9 caches, but 2 were unavailable. First was nice and easy at the Roman Baths in Stoney, then off up the hill to get the second and look for a suitable picnic spot on the way.

Lovely view of Calver (with the seemingly permanent tent display at Outside)

Stopped at the top of the hill, with lovely views of Froggatt Edge for lunch, having found the cache at the farm first. Chalkie was showing off his zoom and getting pictures of climbers. I was losing a fight with the map. They are a tad difficult to completely unfold and refold in windy conditions on top of a hill.

Back down the other side of the hill..

Pretty reflection in the River Derwent and Baby Cows!!!

Third cache supposed to be by Froggatt Bridge. We used the OS map to get there, and then off up the hill to cache 4. Ma not happy when saw the hill she'd have to climb. So big they were paragliding over it..

Cache 4 was in a wall. I was extremely happy to find not only a cute TB inside, but also a LEGO model (one from a City advent calendar). So happy that I left behind a care bear!!

Carried on up the hill, and up the hill some more, and into the woods and.. up the hill. Ma sat on a rock near GZ. Unfortunately not the one it was hidden under. Last little bit of the hill, then down to Riley's Graves for the Multicache.

Number 6 just a bit further down the track. Soggy an understatement. Poured the water out of the cache. On into Eyam. Got distracted by Pops offering ice cream, then noticing the shop had shut 10 mins earlier. Also confused by his car being there. Minor backtrack required.

Up another hill back into the fields. Got number seven. Saw a baby lamb being fed.

 
Ever wonder what an adult male sheep sounds like? Wonder no more...


Number 8 the last one for today. Real shame this series isn't maintained, and 2 were missing. Ah well. This one was by the boundary stone. Look that one up on Wikipedia. Downhill all the way into Stoney. All happy to find the car. Family tired out. Revived somewhat by McDs back in Lufbra, then they had to rush off. I failed to motivate myself to tackle the pile of ironing.

Put the route into OS Getamap this week.. for a bunch of Norfolkians we did a fair bit of climbing..