Fairholmes to Bamford

I travelled to the visitor centre at Fairholmes today. To begin with I visited the dam, and then climbed up through the woods to Lockerbrook farm.

I descended to the Snake Pass road and started to climb up through the woods at the other side of the valley with the intention of reaching Hope Cross and then the village of Hope where I would have a choice of two tearooms, two cafes and four pubs for refreshments. Halfway up the hill though, at a junction of two footpaths, I saw some mountainbikers coming up the hill in  the other direction, some of them carrying their bikes on their shoulders. I didn't want to get in  their way, and I used this as an excuse for a short break so I found I safe spot a few yards down the path they were using and waited until they passed. Absent-mindedly though I kept on walking down that path but didn't realise what I'd done until a few minutes later when I heard running water.

I was back in the Woodlands Valley, approaching the southern shore of the western arm of Ladybower Reservoir. Obviously there would need to be a change of plan; the change of plan would mean possibly visiting the Angler's Arms at Bamford for tea and cake...only if I wanted to walk down the road for over a mile though.

A few minutes later I saw another group of mountainbikers, this time all of them riding their bikes along the relatively flat track...with a small energetic terrier leading the way.

When I reached the Ladybower Dam I took several photographs featuring one of the 'plug holes.' This is the only image I've decided to include today; a very severely cropped image.

In the end I decided to take the cinder track down to the Hope Valley Garden Centre - there's a nice cafe there.

A bus was due in twenty minutes when I arrived; I would have liked to visit the cafe, but I decided to walk straight to the bus stop instead though.