Just come back from a great weekend in the White Peak area. Drove to Youlgreave, leaving the car in a secure location there. The basis for the weekend was the John Merrill Challenge Walk, about 25 miles - a challenge if done in a day but otherwise a very pleasant circuit for a weekend. The official start and finish point is Bakewell but no reason why it has to be there.

We (that’s Frank and me) pointed ourselves towards Monyash, where we stopped for a pint at the The Bulls Head - shows how long since I’ve been there - it was called The Hobbit previously and the name was changed 16 years ago, although I assume it was The Bulls Head before then. It was raining by then and our route took us to Flagg, Taddington, up Monsal Dale in pouring rain, over the viaduct to the campsite at Park Farm. A good little site with decent facilities. The evening was spent in The Packhorse at Little Longstone.

The next day we diverted from the Challenge route and headed north to Cressbrook, stopping for a bacon butty and tea at Katie’s Kitchen at Wardlow Mires - a welcome break. The via Foolow to Eyam, the old plague village, and a pint at The Miners Arms. After that, we dropped down to the River Derwent and climbed up to Froggat Edge, an exhilarating walk along the edge before cutting across to spend the night at the Eric Byne Memorial site, just above the Robin Hood Inn (yes, we went there). The site was good although the facilities were quite basic. The setting is superb though. There must have been about thirty or more youngsters on a D of E weekend there and it was an amazing sight, on Sunday morning at about 5.30am seeing them packing up. The only sound was them rolling up their survival bags and packing away. I don’t know if they were under orders not to make a sound but it was very impressive.

Keeping our distance from the DofE kids

After breakfast, a pleasant walk down through Chatsworth Park to the tearoom at Edensor, meeting friends who’d come along just for a day walk back to Youlgreave, with more rain in the last hour before getting back to the car.

Well, my email to Zinio did the trick and July’s TGO arrived in my in box today but no explanation why it’s late or that it will not be late again.

This is beginning to annoy me. The advertisement for this says that you get the magazine before it is in the shops. Last month, on 30 April, I emailed to jog their memory that I hadn’t received the latest issue. It was sent right away. This month, here we are on 8 June and it still hasn’t arrived. I’ve emailed them but no response as yet. I am seriously unimpressed.

All will be quiet in this neck of the woods until at least 26 May as this blogger is away on holiday.Don’t even bother coming back before then.

This was a well attended event with around 100 or so tents and three tarps at the camp site and a lot of new ones on display. Lots of familiar faces and some fellow bloggers as well.

The weather was better than forecast with rain only coming on Sunday morning. Saturday’s main event was at the village hall in Ashford-in-the-Water, with traders offering lightweight gear that’s not available in the shops and a lot of money changed hands. At the site, I was persuaded (by me) to buy a tent, a Wild Country Sololite, mainly for winter use when it’s too inhospitable to use the tarp. It seems well designed and well made. It weighs 1.9kg which is acceptable. I wasn’t wanting anything ultra-light as I have the tarp for that. Many thanks to Ali of Wild Country who very patiently demonstrated how it was set up.

I had to try it out so one night this week was spent in it in the back garden. It was a still night with no rain but it seems fine. Of course, it hasn’t got anywhere near the space of the Golite Cave but that’s fine. It’s not meant to be a substitute and it will only be used on 10% of outings. Inside there are two pockets for personal items overnight and a hook for hanging a light from. There’s room for a pack either in the inner or in the porch. There should be room for cooking in the porch, provided I can ensure that there’s sufficient ventilation. The porch interior can be enlarged by taking a peg out and thereby shortening the length of the inner - a neat idea. I’ll get away for a weekend with it some time to give it a good test.

The weekend was over all too soon and no real opportunity to get any serious walking done. Still, that wasn’t the intention and there’ll be more trips away as summer approaches.

Here’s a photo of our first grandchild, Kezia Maia. All well but this will probably be the last mention of her on this blog until she’s joining me backpacking.

Further to yesterday’s posting, I’m free to go to the Backpacker’s AGM today! Kezia(h) Mia arrived this morning at 7.10am, only 12 days late. All well. Will go over to Cambridge to inspect after returning home on Sunday.

Am looking forward to this event at Ashford-in-the-Water, near Bakewell, on 26/27 April, particularly the ultra-lightweight gear that will be on show in the village hall. It’s been too long (February) since I last used my tarp and the weather is now warmer although the weather forecast is for some wet. I think it’s certain I’ll be going; the only possible hiccup is the fact that my daughter was expecting her first infant on 13 April. It still hasn’t turned up and she’s booked in to be induced tomorrow, Friday. She’s thoroughly fed up, tired and wishes it were all over, having had a difficult time over the last nine months, what with the worst possible morning sickness and having been on crutches since January suffering from spd which has been painful. My wife will, of course, go and inspect the infant when it arrives. At the moment, I appear still to be able to head for the Peak District.

Well, after a little bit of bother and a couple of ‘phone calls, I’ve just received the May issue of TGO. Had I continued with my paper subscription, I’d have had it a couple of weeks ago. Still, I should have the June issue in a couple of weeks so that’s the upside I suppose. Well, how is digital? I’m impressed actually and although not everyone will necessarily get on with reading on screen I don’t have a problem with it and it means that future issues shouldn’t go walkabout around the house. My reason for going digital is because I don’t like throwing this type of magazine away and I have Trail going back to 1990 and TGO for the past couple of years. It’s all getting a bit too much and there is the occasional rumble of complaint from SWMBO. Among the magazines I scanned bits of and then disposed of a while ago were some issues of The Great Outdoors (TGO’s old name). It was a very different magazine then. Roger Smith would remember it well (he mentions “the old days” in the current TGO). The articles were very different and so were the people who wrote them; seemingly a very different generation. I recall one in particular where the thumbnail photo of the writer showed a middle aged chap in a woollen cardigan, shirt and tie. Of course, that may have been Roger Smith (if so, I apologise) but times have certainly changed and for the better.

I take the view that it’s never too early to start training for a really long hike even though, in this case, I’m not planning to leave until April next year. Between now and then, I’ll be getting out with a loaded pack. In the meantime, I’ve just started specific gym training. Now, I have to say that I’m not exactly a gym virgin. I’ve been going to one three to four times a week for over twenty years so it is something I genuinely enjoy doing. However, my trainer has started me on a regime which is aimed at me being able to do long days without being too exhausted. I mentioned to him the 35 miles a day done by Francis Tapon (site takes an age to load but it is worth it). Now, given that I think my longest ever has been 25 miles with a full pack, I don’t think I’ll get to 35 but I intend to train for more than I expect to actually do. I generally do a mixture of weights and cardiovascular. The new programme (most of which has me wearing a pack with, at the moment 6kg weights inside) includes using a contraption where I’m strapped either side of the waist by elasticated straps on pulleyed weights and do loads of runs and lunges forward and at the extreme jumping up and down on a step, rowing machine, a stepper and, on a treadmill (running machine) alternating 2-3 minutes (total about 16 minutes) uphill on a 15% gradient at 6kph and on a 1% gradient, jogging at 9kph. Now if all that’s not fun, I don’t know what is.