Walking In Chatsworth Park With My Sister From Australia

My sister Della from Brisbane is on holiday for two weeks visiting family members and so it was nice to spend a few hours with her walking in the Peak District. Like myself she is a keen hiker back home in Australia but we had to keep it easy going underfoot today because she was only wearing trainers.

She picked me up just after eight o'clock this morning and we drove to the car park at Calton Lees, near to Chatsworth House. One of my favourite cottages to photograph is here.

We looped round to Edensor, going via Calton Houses.

The approach towards Edensor is lovely and there are plenty of pretty cottages for me to photograph in the village, each one unique; there's even a tea cottage.

We moved on to Chatsworth House itself, unfortunately covered with scaffolding; Della was impressed with the ladies' toilets though. She assured me he footwear was okay for the climb up to the Hunting Tower, where we sat and ate our sandwiches before returning to the car for a one o'clock departure - she needed to visit our parents again briefly and then get ready for a dinner date with an old friend at a country pub near to Wakefield.

She dropped me off in Sheffield city centre and I made my way on foot to the railway station. At Doncaster Railway Station I noticed a busty young woman stripped down to only a skimpy lacy bra and a tight pair of shorts; she was very easy to notice. Oh how I love the summer! 

Autumn Colours At Chatsworth

I got off the bus at Baslow only seventy five minutes after having stepped on the train at Doncaster Station. Although it was bright and sunny as the bus passed over the higher parts of the moors it was still misty down at Baslow and Chatsworth Park. I was hoping that it would soon brighten up though...and it did.

I started with a bit of deer stalking. This was the best shot I got; my camera was struggling to focus in the misty conditions.

I then headed straight for Stand Wood and the Hunting Tower. At this altitude the mist was already lifting and I could see the rays of sun catching the upper storeys of the building; I didn't take any photos because the family that had rented it as a holiday cottage seemed to be just getting up. I just sat on one of the benches, which both face away from any windows.

I ate one of my sandwiches and then after a few minutes made my move, down the steep, slippery steps which lead down to the car park at the back of the stable block.

The estate workers were re-laying the paving in several areas and had positioned a temporary all-weather path as a diversion across the grass, meaning that I could get some photographs of the frontage of the stable block from a different angle; none of them was very good though.

I still had a few minutes to wait until the garden opened at eleven o'clock and so I wandered down towards the river and got some nice shots of some wonderful-looking trees, and Queen Mary's Bower. 

I spent an hour and a half in the garden at Chatsworth and took a lot of photographs.

I walked over to Edensor, but by this time it was clouding over a bit; so I'm only able to include a couple of photographs.

Although I could have caught the bus at Edensor Gates I walked back to the bus stop at Chatsworth House and waited for the 1:40 bus. I wanted to get back to Doncaster before the evening rush hour and with enough time to be able to get in a bit of shopping, especially something nice for my tea. I was feeling a bit lethargic today and so something tasty and nourishing inside me should make me feel a lot better. Maybe it's something to do with my diabetes or vitamin D deficiency - my bet however is that it's the after-effects of putting the clocks back at the weekend. This happens to me every year, twice every year actually, when I feel a bit unwell for about a fortnight when the clocks are put forward or back each spring and autumn...surely I can't be the only person who suffers with this?

When I got back to Doncaster I was nearly knocked over by a security guard as he was in the process of rugby-tackling a female shoplifter.

Baslow and Chatsworth Park

It was quite cold and frosty today; I didn't feel it at all though. I was well wrapped up: two tee-shirts, a lumberjack shirt, a thick woollen fleece, and a ski jacket that would keep me warm at a temperature of minus thirty degrees Centigrade - and I didn't need the 'fur' lined gloves or the trapper's hat.

As I was sitting on the bus at Sheffield Bus Station a woman got on and asked the driver which departures throughout the day from her destination would have a doubledecker, like this one. She mentioned being stranded once when there was no room on a small single-decker bus...and didn't want to be in that situation again. On several occasions I have written about problems with overcrowding on the 218 service, and so I wasn't surprised; both Chatsworth House and Bakewell are very popular destinations from Sheffield.

It was an excellent day for photography; these are the best photos I took.

I got back to Baslow Nether End and went over to the bus stop to confirm that I'd got fifty minutes until the next bus; plenty of time for a pot of tea and a bun in the café. I had no time at all though; the 13:40 bus immediately turned off the main road to the area where the bus stops are - it was ten minutes late.

I had a decision to make; was it going to be the bus, or tea and a bun? I chose the bus.

I finished the walk early today; I had intended to walk over to the estate village of Edensor and photograph the church and some of the pretty cottages, but after struggling climbing down the steep and uneven steps from the Hunting Tower my left knee was hurting me...and it was feeling a bit weak. It was a type of throbbing pain right at the back of my knee; it's nothing new, I've had it before, and it's fine now - three hours later.

Rowsley, Beeley, Calton Lees, Calton Houses, and Edensor.

Today didn't get off to a good start: as I was pulling up my trousers in the gents' toilets at Sheffield Railway Station my buckle broke off my belt, and so I had to do an emergency repair with the lanyard from my GPS...which I hoped would  last me the day.

Unfortunately, as I stood up to get off the bus at Rowsley I was aware that my trousers were struggling to stay up. I popped into the shop, as I would have anyhow, and the owner cut me a length of string to tie my trousers up with - I also bought a carton of milk...as planned. Since the New Year I've been on an informal, unplanned diet, merely cutting back on chocolate, biscuits and cake, and have lost about half a stone; or two inches round my waistline...very noticeable, and yet inconvenient when there's nothing holding up your trousers which are now a size too large.

The footpath was right next to the shop and led up along a lane and then through woodland, quite steep in places; but with lovely views of the Derwent Valley along the lower, more open, section.

I then looped downhill into the village of Beeley. Like Edensor, Pilsley and Calton Lees it's one of the estate villages; situated on land belonging to Chatsworth House. There are many buildings in these villages where all the external paintwork is the same colour, a pleasant blue-green which blends in well with the landscape. I think these properties are owned by the estate, and are likely to be tied cottages for the estate workers...or holiday lets.

Just before reaching Beeley I noticed something quite strange; a 'dead' rodent - it looked like a bat to me - which had somehow been melted onto a gatepost...I'm assuming it was a plastic toy: but someone had spent a bit of time and effort putting it there.

The next section, to Calton Lees, was very flat; along the floodplain of the River Derwent. I stopped to take a photograph of what seemed to me, to be an interesting juxtaposition of a thistle and a dead tree.

The track up to Calton Houses is a gentle climb, followed by a steeper section up to what I judge to be the highest point on today's walk; one of the tumuli on Calton Pastures. I stopped here to eat my sandwiches and admire the view in front of me; without looking at the map I could identify the Hunting Tower at Chatsworth, and Beeley Moor...and most of the route I had already walked.

I continued to the road, just before Ballcross Farm, and turned right and then took the track down into Edensor; where I only had to wait a couple of minutes for the bus: I thought I would have had a bit of time to spare though.