Chewie (who is Simon) and Sarah were on a round the world trip of England and had invited Milly (who is Gill, and definitiely NOT a witch), Pete (who is Pete), and me, to meet up with them whilst they were staying on the Hayfield Camping & Caravan Club site.
The Plan (Ho-ho!) was to go for a short walk, eat cake, drink coffee, and have a damned good catch-up.
Rewind a few years: I met these lovely folk via Outdoors Magic, a one time extremely popular website for outdoorsy folk. The O.M. discussion forum was a lively place, populated by folk like us: outdoorsy types who enjoy a laugh and like to get out there and do stuff.
Sadly, O.M. has changed direction and has fallen from favour. The good news is that some of us manage to stay in touch and arrange the occasional meet-up….this was one of those occasions.
At 10.30am we met up at Hayfield’s quarry car park, conveniently located across the road from Simon (aka Chewie) & Sarah’s campsite. Pete had planned a pleasant, easy route…which just happened to incorporate a superbly lovely cafe that serves the best cakes in the whole wide world. Really. They’re delicious….and generally quite big.
I’m getting ahead of myself again.
For Judith
Mount Famine
We set off south(ish), towards Mount Famine (Anybody know how it got it’s name?). Rather than go as far as Mount Famine, we headed west to pass by Peep-o’-Day, Hills Farm, and then down to Ollerset and Birch Vale to pick up the Sett Valley Trail – a pleasant path that follows the trackbed of the former branch railway line from New Mills to Hayfield.
L>R: Milly, Chewie, Pete, Sarah
Peep o' Day:
Here is the very splendid Sett Valley Cafe – a lovely little cafe that makes the most delicious cakes. And pies and stuff like that.
Well, it would have been rude not to….
Chewie & Sarah indulging, note the defibillator...you can't be too careful
Our return route to Hayfield was along the flat Sett Valley Trail, no less lovely for it's lack of contours.
We said our farewells and went our separate ways – but not before agreeing to meet up again sometime in the summer – hopefully more of the O.M. gang will be able to join us.
Thanks to Chewie & Sarah for coming up with the idea – it was a good ‘un!
Where we went:
6½ miles, with around 1000’ of ascent. And cake.
Gosh, I remember the old OM well, a pity it went downhill. Fortunately I managed to steer clear of the worst of the hassle, but I recall some of the divisions, anger and disharmony that occurred over that period of time. Cracking photos John, keep them coming.
ReplyDelete