Cary wrote:- Starting from near Gradbach Mill, we passed the former hostel now splendidly refurbished as a conference centre with a tarmacked road. It wasn’t long before we walked through porridge mud, following the Dane valley. In places high up, admiring the cliffs, in others more mud. Sunshine welcomed us onto the Roaches ridge, but with a biting cold breeze. The ridge itself had a smear of snow, turning the rocky path into another slurry of icy mud. We didn’t hang around at the Roaches trig point, too cold. A brief bog trot (we walked faster than the mountain biker) to a minor road. A descent through the trees, accompanied by a brief flutter of snowfall, returned us to our start just as the sunlight was fading.
