An Impromptu Dark Peak Camp

A load of texts flying about on the Friday and a camp was soon organised for the Saturday night. Hubby Geoff dropped me off at a prearranged rendezvous point in the Dark Peak at 5pm, where James and Rich were already waiting. Reuben the Mountain Staffy was also waiting excitedly, but I’d left my Dixie at home. Much as she loves wild camping, at 12 years old now, she’s not quite as resilient as she used to be and tires more easily, so she had put in a request for her own bed and the central heating for the night.

The plan was for something short and sweet. Four miles out, a high camp, then another four miles on the Sunday morning to another prearranged rendezvous point, where Geoff would pick us all up and take James and Rich back to their car.

It was a gorgeous evening as we set off, still and warm, with far reaching views. Reuben was having a great time, doing roly-polys at the slightest opportunity.

Of course, any roly-poly meant that his tummy could also be tickled at the same time.

The local wildlife was also pretty active. Both hares and mice in abundance. We kept seeing mice diving about from tussock to tussock, and the hares were everywhere. Sometimes running away, sometimes quietly grazing.

And if you look carefully, my rather pathetic photo here shows a leveret patiently waiting for its mum to come back.

James had a spot in mind for the wild camp and it didn’t disappoint.

Right on the tops, but with water not too far away.

And I have to say, the water was a rather nifty shade of brown.

For the first time in months, too, it was both warm enough and still enough to cook and eat outside the tent.

I slept really well, but of course by morning the inevitable wind and rain had appeared, so breakfast was a less communal affair with cooking being done in the porch.

Rich did wander over however, with some excellent choc chunk muffins he’d made for everyone for breakfast. (As in made the day before, he didn’t bake them on the hill.) They were absolutely delicious, but I didn’t think to take a photo of them until I’d eaten them…..

So, packing up was done in the rain before we all set off in our respective waterproofs.

The donning of the waterproofs worked, though. We’d only been going ten minutes before the sun came out and we all had to stop and start stripping layers off again.

 

And the weather and the views, just got better and better.

 

The four miles was soon over though and by 12 noon we were down at the second, prearranged rendezvous point (which just happened to be a pub) where our taxi was waiting. Not that Geoff had been taking it easy, mind. He’d already been down at Aldi spending money on cycling gear and had then had to go and try it out – of course – on a bit of a cycle ride. And to top it all, he turned up bearing both chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip shortbread….

And James’ version of events can be found over on Reuben’s blog.

And Rich has a version over on his blog.