Friday, 10th July 2015
Met up with Mark off the forum who wrote the intro/trip report..."Had a lovely walk today in gorgeous weather.
I did feel a bit guilty as I had posted the possibility of a walk in the meet up section but then left all the planning, transport, map reading etc. to Mel who broke her journey from the East Riding to Wales in order to join me in the Peak District. By the time we met up in Buxton she had been driving for hours while I had walked from my digs in minutes.
I did my usual trick of taking only 1 photo all day but Mel should have more to share, though she took less than usual. I can not really remember why this was, it may have been that she was having problems with her camera but she barely mentioned this!
For those who know the area our route was Pym Chair car park, down to the Spanish Shrine, along Foxlow Edge before spending some time exploring the ruins of Errwood Hall. This would have been the 'big house' in the valley before the reservoir flooded it, the house was demolished in the 1930's. We then continued further up the valley before heading up Deep Clough and up the steep path to the top of Shining Tor for lunch.
From here a lovely gentle ridge walk took us all the way along the tops, over Cats Tor, with great, though hazy, views before we dropped back down to the car park. Mel, having been map reader and tour guide then reverted back to her previous role as chauffeur to drive me back to Buxton.
Mel. Thanks for a lovely day, it was great to meet you, I hope you have a good time in Wales and the Lakes. If I am back up here next year we will take a stroll up Kinder. As instructed I haven't mentioned your socks at all."
... Then my contribution (plus photos)...
Inside the Spanish Shrine.... there's things either side too but if you want to know what they were you'll have to go and visit
:
Errwood Hall (and I never realised when I took the pic that Mark was wandering along the other wall):
Looking down towards Errwood Reservoir:
View from Goytsclough Quarry (and snack stop number one with yummy cake - thanks Mark
) looking along the River Goyt (I think) and, well, if it wasn't, it was one of the feeder streams into Errwood Reservoir:
I took this pic purely because I have signpost OCD:
We didn't head up to Shining Tor via Stakeside - no, we wandered up a slightly more challenging riverside path, that wasn't the RoW, but was through woodland and much appreciated dappled shade up Deep Clough, before crossing a little footbridge and joining Stake Clough further up.
From there we headed up the never-endingly steep hillside towards Stake Farm. There were good views to be had opening out behind us and we (that would be me then) took every opportunity to stop and admire the views regularly, very regularly in fact
Snack stop number two followed once we'd reached a flat bit before the final ascent to Shining Tor where we eyed our route up warily. Turned out it wasn't half as steep as the bit we'd just walked up to be honest.
And in no time at all, it was through a little gate and we stepped into Cheshire to bag the trig point on Shining Tor:
Back into Derbyshire again and, finally, summit sarnie time
... that'll be snack stop number 3 . We compared sarnies... Mark's - freshly out of the chiller cabinet that morning, mine - made 24 hours earlier and squashed in a rucksack since 6am. Can you tell who's is who's? 
:
... and admired the startlingly close view of Shutlingsloe - Cheshire's Matterhorn. The pic I took of that didn't turn out very well at all as the sun was in the wrong place
From there, it was a gentle downhill - oh, hang on - who put that uphill there? along The Tors to Cat's Tor, keeping our views to the right as there was too much Big City going on to the left.
As we topped Cat's Tor we wandered past some large rocky outcrops - Oldgate Nick? :
And so back to the oven that was my car which had been parked in full sun all day
A quick pootle back to Buxton where a little tea room-cum-café-cum-antiques-shop beckoned with the most laid-back staff ever
and we literally had 6 cups of tea between us (they were dainty little teacups). A short meander along the pedestrianised bit of Buxton to see the well dressings, and a Pigeon who was enjoying a feast on the petals had us parting company - Mark for a two minute walk back to his digs and me with what turned out to be a three hour drive to Wales and walking into a restaurant looking like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, and still in my walking clobber (classy )Cheers again Mark for a fab day's walking. I just re-lived it typing this up
Thanks for looking 