Peaks Walking 1

While big M and J went to Paris, R and little M went to the Peak district for a spot of walking. I think little M really wanted to do the south coast track in Tas, or maybe K2, but life is full of compromises! She has been very excited, we bought books on walks and campsites and she started hassling about packing at least a week before we left and putting aside things which she thought should go (important stuff like doggy, catty and rabbity) as well as trying on her boots and colour combinations for walking clothes.

The campsite at Upper Booth farm was really good - we could have done a weeks worth of walking straight from the tent without driving anywhere (although we did drive over to Castleton for our second days walking for some variety). Took a bit of finding...things like turn offs are not so well sign posted in the UK if you dont know all the little whistle stops on the way to your destination!

Once we had the tent up and located all the facilities we went for a 6 mile circuit walk - total height gained of about 500m. Not bad for 6 year old! Of course the M had to take her pack and the menagerie. If was really hot so it didnt take long for her to decide that dad would be better off carrying her pack (and animals).

She didnt go very fast at any point...except when she saw a rock or cliff she might climb on...but just kept moving a bit, resting a bit, moving a bit. It was hellishly hot until we got up onto the top of the Kinder Scout plateau, then we had a pleasant breeze. The final descent back to the campground went straight down a very steep grass slope for a couple of hundred metres. The track was deeply cut into the turf to about waist height in places (for me), and with the steepness it felt a bit like diving down a rabbit hole. I had a miserable time on the steep slippery surface (sore knees) but M, who was flagging a bit, just loved it. When we got to the bottom she wanted to go back and do it again! All up it took about 6 hours for the walk and we were both pretty tired and slept well.