I've just been to Lincoln with Siobhan, my support worker. For a change, and because the parking's a bit cheaper, we parked at the bottom of the hill and ended up seeing some parts of the city we'd not seen before.
There were several dozen giant brightly painted Lincoln Imps positioned around the city centre.
I travelled to the hamlet of Windmill today and headed west along High Rake and Tideslow Rake before turning to the south and walking along the road to Tideswell.
This sign near to Tideswell refers to sheep.
I explored Tideswell for forty minutes, it's a large village.
I walked along the road to Litton and stopped for a cold drink and a slice of tiffin from the village shop. I continued heading east to Wardlow Mires, a particularly unattractive village by Peak District standards. However, the next place gets my top billing as a blot on the landscape, Cavendish Mills...
There's still some nice countryside in the area though.
The tracks at Cavendish Mill are very dry and dusty at the moment and I got enveloped in a thick cloud of dust and debris when a lorry went past me; the driver could have had the courtesy to stop and let me get past first. This was the worst experience I've ever had in the Peak District - I was coughing, wheezing, spluttering, and cursing for several minutes afterwards.
I went down into the upper reaches of Coombs Dale and then climbed out up the other side using a couple of paths I'd not used before and then continued on the old quarry road, passing my second location of the day known as High Rake.'
I finished the walk by going down the road that leads to Bubnell, and then Baslow, where I caught the bus back to Sheffield. The engine really struggled getting up the hill out of Baslow.
I almost did a circular walk from Baslow today featuring Chatsworth Park and the two estate villages of Edensor and Beeley. I caught the 257 bus which goes the long way round to Baslow, but it was better than waiting another twenty five minutes at the bus station in Sheffield.
I was able to get off at the church by going this way.
I walked through the village and entered Chatsworth Park and headed south until I reached Chatsworth House.
I think this is actually a showjumping fence that's also a piece of sculpture; I really like it.
I was able to get up quite close to the fallow deer; it's the first time I've seen them in the park...I usually see the larger red deer.
I took some photographs in the courtyard area.
I then walked across the fields to Calton Houses and continued down the track to Calton Lees, two very small hamlets.
It was a short easy walk to Beeley and then a climb up onto Beeley Moor, where the heather was still in bloom.
I planned to finish the walk by heading north through Stand Wood and intending to return to Nether End but by now it had been drizzling for over an hour and I could see people waiting at the bus stop at Chatsworth House and so decided to finish early. My timing was prefect, I only had a few minutes to wait.
