I parked in Hayfield by the road between the phone box and the pay and display carpark. The south on the Pennine ridgeway which follows a pleasing route to near the top of Mount Famine. I look a wee detour too visit the top and then on to the top of South Head. A beautiful Christmas morning. And then a long walk over bog to the trig point on Brown Knoll. The ground was frozen solid which made it all easier. By the time I was approaching my next trig pointy on Kinder Low the weather was starting to close in. Something called Storm Bella was forecast to cause havoc. I had planned to carry on to Ashop Head and back bay William Clough. Instead, given the changing weather, I headed down more directly by Kinderlow End and Tunstead Clough Farm.    

Not a long walk. Parked in car park to south, straight p paved path to paved summit. Onwards as far as Hollins Cross and then took the slippery - in today's conditions path that does a slowly descending contour to pick up the road above Blue John Cavern and so home.  

It was raining but, hey. Not hard. I parked at Parsley Hay and trudged down the Tissington Trail as far as Hartington Station. Here I planned to follow the path om the map cutting across fiends near Leamlow Farm. But the line where the path was meant to go looked very muddy and univiting so I skirted the edge of the field and just followed the lane that branches off the B5054 and continues over the A515 to pick up the Midshires Way/Pennine Bridleway which I followed back to Parsley Hay. Near where the Pennine Bridleway meets the Tissington Trail there is a little gate in the wall which I went through for a little recce of Lean Low but I never got as ar as the top. 

With Huihui and Sufang. We started early, so early there were almost no other cars at the roadside by Burbage Bridge as we parked up there in the pre-dawn half-light. We followed the two of Burbage Rocks south to the A6187 which we followed to the Fox House pub and a bit beyond to take a right down the Houndkirk Road. Let and up past Lady Canning's Plantation and past the Ox Stones on to the Ringinglow road again. The plan had been to complete a loop round by Redmires Reservoir and Stanage Pole but Huihui was feeling a little poorly so I left her here with Sufang for twenty minutes or so while I walked up the road to fetch the car (there were a LOT of cars at Burtnage Bridge by now) and so back to Sheffield. A great walk in great company even if it was truncated. 

I was here for a mosey on 17th May and came back today to mosey some more. There used to be a ton of unofficial parking by Strines Bridge at the start of the track to Foulstone Delf but has all been closed off now. But there is a little space by the roadside where the track goes off to Brogging and today there was just space for one more. I headed down to Brogging then down through the woods to the footbridge. Over the stile out of the woods and up the hill past Boots Folly and Sugworth Hall on the rather cramped little path the people at the Hall have made to take walkers round the edge of their grounds. It had rained a lot of late and though it was raining no longer the ground was soaked through and it was very very muddy today,. The muddiness eased of after I crossed the road and headed south accompanied by the noise of dogs from Moscar. Left then left again up the Stake Hill Road over the highest part of Lodge Moor eventually meeting Wet Shaw Lane, another road. Right a bit then follow a path downhill crossing two more roads eventually meeting the Sheffield Country Walk. Here it all got very muddy again. There were a lot of cows about, placid enough, including the bull I had to pass a little uncomfortably close to, but they had done what and churned the ground up into porridge. I followed the Sheffield County Walk path back to the woods below Brogging but I noticed most people were using the concessionary path a bit lower down that follows the edge of the reservoir and was maybe less muddy and less cowy. 

With Huihui. Huihui recently landed from China and  has had the Chinese vaccine so I thought let's relax now. We drove to Hathersage. Then took the path that goes diagonally uphill past Scraperlow and Mitchell Field and on to just above Callow Bank where a path led us off towards Stanage through a small herd of placid Belted Galloway cows. We scrambled up to the trig point and followed the Edge north. A lot of keen climbers hereabout who are not put off by a cold wet November day. And down the way I have come down so very often. Public loos, North Lees House, Bronte Cottage, Hathersage, home.     

Just for a change a not-the-Peak-District South Yorkshire walk. Fishlake is a little village on the Don north of Doncaster. The first mile or so took me away from the river over farmland following what the OS map called the Thorne Rond Walk along mostly very muddy tracks passing north of Thorninghill Farm. Then I followed the Don north for a couple of miles. Hereabouts there is the river, then there is a strip of pasture beside it, then there is a man-made grassy bank to act as a flood wall with a path along the top, then there is a barbed wire fence, then there is the main footpath. Opportunities easily to cross the fence are few and far between. I found one as the nicest walking was on the bank without the same bank blocking any view of the river. All went well till I saw the cows grazing on the pasture ahead. Probably they are fine, I thought, but just to be safe I will walk the other side of the bank next to the fence so they won't notice me. They noticed me. I got back across the fence in some haste in spite of the barbed wire.  As I approached Bank Hose I turned left on the road through Pincheon Green. This very straight little road has very little traffic but what traffic it had goes rather fast. The road took me to the New junction Canal  I followed it south as far as near Wood End Farm. Then I took minor roads south looking to pick up the path shown on the map following the north bank of the looping old course of the Don. Important public service announcement. There is a path here and the ground underfoot is not nice. Avoid. A path began to exist where I rejoined the main river. After Stainforth Bridge I planned  to follow the riverside path south of the road back to Fishlake but it was closed while some construction was underway so I followed the road all the way back.  There is a reason the Peak District is more popular. 

It wasn’t the loveliest of days but the Peak District was certainly busy. I went to park in the NT car park by the Grouse Inn but it was full up so I drove north a bit and parked in the Wooden Pole Car Park at the south end of the Longshaw Estate. Downhill through woods to reach the B6521 west of Longshaw Lodge. Loads of people round here. An ice cream van, maybe two. Some people very considerately at pains to socially distance. Some of them, er , not. I followed the path down Padley Gorge till it dropped me back on the B6521 this time just above Grindleford Station. On down this road to the bridge over the Derwent at Grindleford. South from here, the Derwent Valley Heritage Way to Froggat. Through Froggat. Then right up a path that climbs up to the A625 just by the Chequers Inn. Straight over and up, up to Froggatt Edge. Above the path a very agile young woman was trying to get up some nasty looking crack which seemed to be testing her agility to its limit. Up onto the cliff top path and north, past the little stone circle, and back to A625. On this for half a kilometer to a little past the Grouse – there is enough path on side of road to largelty avoid having to walk on it. Now a path heads right to join the driveway to White Edge Lodge and so home.     

With Helen. Helen had a flat tyre. I had a new toy - a little black Peugoet 108. So I picked her up in Macclesfield and we drove to Errwood Reservoir in the same car. Proper living dangerously. Then we climbed Shining Tor.

Back to this most beautiful part of the Peak District. I asked in a tiny car park in Alstonefield. I walked over pleasant field paths to Wetton, then out on the Buxton Road. Just before the road does a wiggle I took a field path left, over a field and onto access land which climbed steeply up to the top of the unsung but delightful Gateham Hill. THen my way lay northeast but it was very steep on that side so came down a more northerly line to cross a field back onto the road were it bends. There were cattle in the field but they left me be.  From the T-junction by Gateham Grange it is a really pleasant walk up onto arrow dale Hill,. The OS map shows no path but there's a path. Delightfully back to Alstonefield by Greenhills Cottage.