Bakewell, Congreave, Rowsley, Stanton Woodhouse, Stanton Lees, Warrencarr, Darley Bridge, and Dimple

Because it's been quite windy today I've chosen to do a low level walk in  the Peak District from Bakewell to just north of Matlock.

I started by walking to the Agricultural Business Centre in Bakewell and took the path leading approximately southwards which stays pretty close to the River Wye as I headed downstream.

It was flooded in places down by the river, fortunately the footpath surface here is gravel under the water.

At Haddon Hall I walked along the A6  road for a few hundred yards until I joined the minor road leading uphill to Congreave, nothing more than a hamlet.

[It hadn't been a very productive session for the local molecatcher - there are only six dead moles hanging on the wire fence]

I then walked across the fields on a footpath going back down to the river at Rowsley; the Wye joins the Derwent here.

I then headed south, staying parallel to the Derwent, but mostly out of sight of the river, passing through Stanton Woodhouse and Stanton Lees.

Just after passing through Stanton Lees I was distracted by an annoying constant clicking sound for several minutes as I was walking down the road. It must have been an electric fence, there was nothing else there that I could see. I've never known electric fences make a noise before though, so maybe it was actually something else.

The next section of the walk, passing right next to the Enthoven recycling facility was rather unattractive, but Darley Bridge, the next place I reached is pleasant. I crossed over the river here and continued towards the footpath that goes alongside the tracks of the heritage railway for a couple of miles before popping up on the main road that heads north out of Matlock, at a place called Dimple.

This footbridge had been partially destroyed and almost washed away by the floodwaters - it was leaning at an angle of forty five degrees and its foundations had been undermined, having been separated from their anchor points on both river banks, but it seemed sturdy enough and so I risked crossing it, humming the Indiana Jones theme tune for good luck as I cautiously inched forward, holding on to whatever piece of the structure I could grab. The bridge was wobbling, swaying, and bouncing up and down with every step I took and I only looked down once at the deep fast-flowing water ten foot beneath me.

There are plenty of buses going back to Bakewell from Dimple, where I finished the walk, and I didn't have long to wait for one.