Meet Report: Thurs 14th Dec

[Stephen Warwick]

Back in May I offered a club walk from Monsal Head. It was a perfect Sunday morning but only the two of us turned up.. This morning, with low cloud and a steady drizzle falling, I was more than a little surprised to find twenty of us gathered for today’s walk from Hathersage – such are the vagaries a meet organiser has to contend with. There was no reason for optimism regarding the weather as we climbed up to Birley Farm and through the fields of Ridgeway Side. These fields (to which, as I was reminded, I was first introduced by a certain lady member) are a riot of wildflowers in the springtime and well worth a visit, but today they were just rough pasture with a few bedraggled sheep eyeing us balefully as we passed by. By the time we reached Dennis Knoll the drizzle had stopped but the cloud was still clamped firmly on and below Stanage Edge. However, as we walked up the Long Causeway, the unexpected began to happen. The cloud and mist began to shift and across the valley we saw wooded ridges and patches of sunlit pasture start to appear between drifting banks of cloud and mist. It was beautiful, very atmospheric and well worth the effort of turning out on such an unpromising morning. We ate lunch above the crags and watched all this unfold below us before making our way down through Stanage Plantation, over Carrhead Rocks and back to the village where some of us adjourned to the Pool Cafe for tea and cake. A day of contrasts – thankyou all for helping to make it such an enjoyable and rewarding one.
Cheers
Steve W

Picture by Andrew Milne (click on it to get full size version):

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