Well, it had to happen someday. A visit to the Peak District without the aim of climbing a hill. We had planned all week to visit the Peaks with Nick from work. Also, having done a fair amount of ascent recently, Cheryl also suggested a longer but flattish walk. So a quick visit to Walking Britain and a walk from Monyash to Lathkill Dale was chosen.
Nick picked us up about 10ish, so we walked out of Monyash about 11. The first couple of miles were incident free, other than some piss taking out of my shorts – their 2nd outing this year! I must admit I was a little chilly…
Things went slightly amis however, when we descended into Caves Dale. We should have climbed straight out of it again to head over to Youlgreave, but alas, I wasn’t concentrating on the map, and thus beared left into Lathkill Dale. This valley should have been the return leg, but instead we choose to walk down it.
Its a great valley, smaller and less dramatic than Dove Dale, but it did feel more remote, and dare I say, more pretty. There was green moss growing on just about every wall and tree. There were beautiful waterfalls (some man made) so I bored my companions a little by rattling off about 300 photos. Oops!
Waterfalls on the River Lathkill
Then, we continued further downstream to a point where the valley opened up. We sat, eat lunch and watched ducks fight and dive in the river. A little further down the stream on Conksbury Bridge, I saw my first live trout – there were loads of them.
Trout in the River Lathkill
After some consideration at the bridge, we decided to take the shorter option back to Monyash by simple retracing our steps through Lathkill Dale right to the end. So we did, and a very pleasent walk back it was. It’s amazing how different the views are looking through a valley one direction and the other. Then, once we entered the section above Caves Dale, the terrain got a little tougher, and it became more obvious were were in limestone country. Lots of caves, and limestone crags providing quite dramatic views. This upper section takes you to within a mile of Monyash, so after some simple trekking over a couple of farmer’s fields, we arrived in Monyash about 17:00. We found a cafe on the way back to the car and polished off toffee and chocolate ripple ice creams – the first outdoors ice creams of the year.
Limestone features in the top of Lathkill Dale
All in all, a great walk and the weather was ok. Unfortunately, as blogged yesterday, snow is forecast for my lakeland expedition but at least my YHA bookings are now confirmed at Windermere, Buttermere and Keswick. Just got to plan the route between them!!