Sunday, 22 November 2009

Around Taddington Vale

Parked up at White Lodge car park, crossed the A6 and followed a path up the very end of the hill opposite and out onto tracks to Priestcliffe.  It started raining as we got out onto the tops and I didn't have a particularly warm top on under my waterproof top and very quickly got cold, to the point where I couldn't stop walking or I'd chill right off.  By the time we reached Priestcliffe, I was seriously flagging because I was desperate for food and quickly running out of energy, but I couldn't stop.  We trudged on and by the time we reached the A6 (having missed a short cut across to Taddington) it had more or less stopped raining, which was a relief.

In the end, we crammed ourselves into a tiny, stone built bus shelter in Taddington, I put my coat on over my waterproof and got the hot chocolate and butties out.  Once revitalised, we continued on down through the village.  I tried to spot the YHA Camping Barn, which a group of us stayed at in February some years ago - not a good place to go armed only with a two-season sleeping bag, I wore nearly all my clothing and was still frozen! - but I must have missed it, can't even remember for sure which side of the road it was.

Below the village we followed a lane, which became a track past Taddington  Field Farm, which became a very steep, very muddy, very slippy path back to the car park.  Near the bottom, perched above a deep gorge, the start of Deep Dale, we stopped to finish off our hot chocolate and then continued to where we'd left the car, with a quick exploration of a small cave on the way.

Quite a good weekends' walking, all in all.  Yesterday 9 miles, today 6 miles, a total of 15.

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