Surprise View, Hathersage Booths, Hathersage, The Bird Cafe, and Bamford

Another walk in the Hope Valley today, this time using a footpath I definitely haven't used before, it doesn't really go anywhere though...unless you're prepared to use the stepping stones across the River Derwent.

I caught the Castleton bus to Surprise View, the first bus stop in Derbyshire, and made my way along the top of Millstone Edge, heading northwards. The path then crosses moorland down to a minor road, which I crossed to take a path which leads down into Hathersage.

A couple of young women who were exercising their horses had roped off part of a field and blocked the footpath. It was easy enough to climb over; I was prepared for an altercation, but nothing happened.

I actually took a different path than I had originally planned, one that went down to Hathersage Booths rather than coming out at the church in the village...I did this to keep as far away from the horses as possible.

[It's not often you get to use an automatic gate opener on a public footpath, this one's on the private drive that leads to Scraperlow, a large house.]

I walked down the hill to Hathersage and then through the village until I reached the footpath I mentioned at the beginning of this report; it now crosses the railway over a footbridge which needed to be constructed since the addition of the passing loop for freight trains. 

I was expecting there to be three tracks; I could see the third one in the distance though, just beyond the next bridge.

The next path goes down to the riverbank and follows it for half a mile upstream to the stepping stones, where I had the option of turning right and re-joining the main Hope Valley road. I took this option and and then walked for a few hundred yards to the bird cafe, somewhere I'd not visited before. I was a bit disappointed with the bird cafe, there weren't a lot a cakes to choose from and they were rather expensive, and so I didn't bother and just ordered a pot of tea. I didn't really get to see any birds either, a few came up to the utilitarian bird feeder atteched to the window where my table was but they only stayed for a couple or seconds and so I couldn't photograph them.

I left the cafe and continued walking westward along the main Hope Valley road to the bus turnaround at Bamford Station where I knew there would soon be two buses to going to Sheffield by different routes.

I got off the bus at The Moor in Sheffield and went to the indoor market to get some fish and cakes, but not any fishcakes. I'm trying to get a different variety of fish every time I go there and today I bought something that the fishmonger's sign was red sea bass but when I checked its Latin name online that's not one of its names, which are beaked redfish, deepwater redfin, ocean perch, Atlantic redfish, Norway haddock, red perch, or golden redfish.

Finally, I had a bit of time to spare and so had a quick look at the Christmas market.

My Gait

Something I've noticed; my gait has changed since I've recovered from my injury when I tore a ligament whilst climbing over a stile, and then a few days later, getting tangled up in my vacuum cleaner's hose, tripping and falling down several steps at home.  

I've always had an awkward, bouncy, loping way of walking which I assumed was due to my Asperger's syndrome causing to me to be clumsy and un-coordinated, and more recently my decades of undiagnosed severe vitamin D deficiency which could have caused permanent muscoloskeletal damage.

Until a few months ago though when climbing up stairs I would always firmly plant my entire foot on each step, but now I only place the front few inches there - I've observed that this seems to be what most people do. 

So, maybe my gait has now improved or become more naturalistic, I don't know. I tried climbing steps how I used to but found out that I don't have the strength in my thigh muscles.