26

Walk 26 - Eyam, Bretton Clough and Eyam Moor - 9 miles. Well that was the plan but in the event I reduced it to around five miles because there was a lot of drifted snow all over the place and the going was sometimes rather tough. This British climate is quite incredible. A week ago I was walking in sunshine without a coat or jacket, beads of sweat on my brow and a cooling pint of shandy on the pub bench in front of me. Today, I was wearing my lined trousers, gloves and waterproof boots and at one point found myself scaling a six foot snowdrift on Sir William Hill Road. 

I parked by the church in the plague village of Eyam, nipped inside to take a photo and chatted to the old lady who was on guard duty there. Then I hiked over the fields, crossing Linen Dale to the pretty limestone village of Foolow, then up on to Hucklow Edge and along to the hamlet of Bretton. I was tempted to enter "The Barrel Inn" but pressed on to Sir William Hill. A farmer with a JCB digger was clearing the road. Soon afterwards, I cut across the fields back down to Eyam but before I could get there I did an impromptu impression of a sack of potatoes being chucked off a lorry. Whoop! Slam! I'm down on the snowy deck expecting an invisible audience to laugh themselves silly. The last time I fell I cracked a couple of ribs but today all was well and fortunately I had just zipped my new camera back in its case.

Statistically, I have worked out that I will probably have a significant fall every two hundred and fifty miles. Perhaps I should invest in one of those padded sumo suits to prevent serious injury.

Walk 26 Gallery:-

St Lawrence's Church in Eyam

Houses in Foolow

"The Barrel Inn", Bretton

Veteran cars parked at "The Barrel"

Snowdrift on Sir William Hill