The walk started in the lovely Derbyshire village of Baslow and was led by Sandra (who had previously done a ‘reckie’ with Sheilagh) and helped on the day by Pam with her excellent back up map-reading.
The low paths were a little bit muddy, and there were signs of damaged trees from the recent high winds and storms but the scenery was excellent.
Pam informed everyone that it was now officially Spring as she had found a buttercup in her garden in the morning. There was definitely evidence of this on the walk with snowdrops and even a few brave daisies in the woodland areas.
The path followed the River Derwent, passing through the Calver Marshes Nature Reserve and up to Froggatt Edge. About 50 feet from the top the Group stood back to allow a coach trip of walkers from Doncaster to decend – all 58 of them!
Along Froggatt’s Edge it was decided not to walk too near the cliff edge due to the blustery weather. Pam recounted real-life stories from a book she had just read about tragedies on mountain sides so even Campbell with his love of walking along cliff edges agreed that this was a good idea.
It was very windy and at times it was hard to walk in a straight line, but the wind seemed to keep the rain away, and nobody complained of being cold. Along this part of the walk the group came across several other walkers, along with some large working horses being exercised, a couple of Emmerdale TV celebrities out running and a very friendly and cute Cocker Spaniel called Harvey!
There was not much shelter along the Edge, but ducking down behind a big rock meant lunch could be eaten in relative comfort – except for Pam, who felt that if she sat down behind the rock she might struggle to get back up again - so she sat on a little exposed rock nearby – with her coat and hood zipped up against the wind!
After a quick lunch the walk continued across Curbar Edge, along to Eagle Stone and then down a rocky path where Howard pointed out badger holes, to a road that led back to Baslow village, arriving there at about 2.30pm.
Everyone agreed that it had been a lovely walk. The predicted rain had never arrived, and the wind had certainly blown away any winter cobwebs.
This was Sandra’s first walk and hopefully there will be many more to come.
