Fellwanderers

Last weekend the Fellwanderers left dreary London behind as we shot up the M1 to Derbyshire. Our Youth Hostel was in the village of Hathersage, just below Stanage Edge. Clear skies on Saturday morning meant that it was a shorts day for most of us, even though there was frost and ice on the ground. We started our walk from the Derwent reservoirs and headed for the square plateau of Kinder Scout. The top consisted of strange rock formations, and a landscape of dark peaty mud. Patches of snow lying in the miniature valleys added to the excitement, although the combined mud and snowball fight never really got going, and there were no acceptors to the challenge of a mud wrestle with Olly.

Our evening meal was a delicious sweet and sour chicken with rice and noodles, to coincide with the Chinese New Year. A mini pub-crawl visiting two of the three pubs in the village rounded the evening off perfectly.

Sunday was a bit cloudy, but the rain held off as we spent the morning walking along the Burbage Rocks, and then down into a river valley. In the afternoon we explored the grounds of Chatsworth House, ancestral home of the Duke And Duchess of Devonshire. Our journey back to London was only interrupted by a stop at a pub for dinner, and we arrived at IC at a bizzarely early 9.30pm, which meant only one thing was - the Union Bar, where we discussed all the highs and lows of the trip.