It's been quite a mash-up

over the last few days!

Lets go through things and you can tell me what you think about my 'relaxing' 'holiday'!

Thursday then, the forecast improved overnight so i decided to do my first trip up the Derwent reservoirs in well over 8 years.

In case you don't know, and why would you, the Derwent reservoirs, Derwent, Howden and Ladybower were built to supply Sheffield and surrounding areas with water in the mid C20, drowning the villages of Ashopton and Derwent in the process. Further, the upper valley was thought to be similar to the Ruhr valley and was used by the RAF to train for the famous Dambusters raid in 1943, something which has been 'celebrated' down the years with fly throughs by a Lancaster bomber on several notable anniversaries. (the biggest to date being the 50th in 1993 when literally half of Sheffield including me, made their way out for the spectacle).

So i set off on familiar roads, i first rode them 45 years ago, up to Owler Bar and over the 375m high point to Longshaw and thence down to Hathersage and the Hope valley. Not for long tho', i soon turned off to climb up the Derwent valley to the currently very depleted Ladybower reservoir, picking up the lane that runs past the upper dams and up towards Slippery Stones and Cut Gate. The reservoirs are certainly low but history suggests some few days of wet will make a huge difference as they gather wet from the high moors. Foxy however is not the bike for serious off road riding so i retraced the road back to Fairholmes where all the facilities are, including a tuck shop where i purchased a cup of tea to go with my packed lunch.

Replete, i set off down the eastern side of Ladybower, which, whilst not all tarmac, is a reasonable surface back to the Snake Pass. Much like everyone else i stopped to look at the remains of Derwent village, Ashopton is still under several metres of H2O thanbkfully, if that comes into view we really are in trouble! Back on tarmac i headed back towards Sheffield using the lanes south of Bradfield to return to urban Sheffield, surviving an attempt to kill me by an inattentive driver by mere millimetres! (that's no exaggeration, i'm not sure how they didn't catch Foxy's rear end, just glad i escaped). Another climb to avoid the city centre before returning to base, 85km and just shy of 1300m of climbing, a proper ride!

I don't generally ride on consecutive days but what the heck, Friday looked like it would stay dry so it would be a shame not to make use. And so i set off intop the Peak District once more, this time climbing up onto the Eastern Edges which i then followed for a goodly distance before dropping into the Derwent valley at Cromford. It was getting towards lunchtime so i stopped at Via Gellia truck stop for a welcome cuppa with my sandwiches.

The return leg was, on paper, the tougher bit of the day with several 'interesting' climbs to return to Sheffield. So it was up through Bonsall, Elton and Youlgreave to reach Bakewell uppertown but my luck ran out just above Ashford as a few drops of wet became a downpour. I could see blue sky following through so rather than get drowned i waited it out for a few minutes which was a lot more pleasant than riding through it. Over the hill to Calver then it was the last big climb of the day up Froggatt before a speedy descent back into Sheffield for a last little uphill to my start point. A step up over Thursday in both distance, over 91km and metres gained, over 1500! This was a fairly standard ride when i was living in Sheffield and i was quite pleased that my ageing bones could still do it without undue distress.

Three days in a row is unusual but four, that's real holiday trip stuff. However with the forecast for Sunday looking a bit iffy i decided to go for it but as a sop to my legs it was to be westwards for a 'flat' ride into Robin Hood country. The worst bit of that was the tailwind that sped me out to Clowne, Creswell and on into Clumber Park, somewhere i would be paying for the weather's largese! My target was the setting of my latest story, May Queen, Wellow and the last few kilometres were almost directly into the grip of the aforementioned wind.

I dined on my sandwiches in the bus shelter in front of the Olde Red Lion, overlooking the Maypole, girding myself for the return leg which i couldn't put off. I hadn't gone 2km before the first spots of wet hit. On the plus side the worst of it passed either side of me but i still got a bit damp as i headed through Gaby land aka Warsop but it had blown through by the time i started the draggy climb up to Bolsover. I stopped at the castle, not to visit but to get a cuppa at the cafe, just about avoiding the towns pride event in the grounds - why do they think all gender variant folk like drum & base and disco?

Anyhoo, with 80km already covered i was sure to reach the century before i got back but the sun was out and the wind much less than it had been. Two more long but steady climbs returned me to Sheffield, 104km and the 'flat' ride still had over 1000m of climbing, i struggle to get that on a hilly ride out of Brizzle!

Which brings us to today. I had toyed with another ride but decided to have a more restful day instead. Restful she says, i ended up walking into the city centre, a round trip of 16km but only one climb - a mere 200 odd metres! I did get myself some lunch whilst in town but on the flipside,the rain that was forecast mid afternoon caught me in the last kilometre or so, annoying but not the end of the world.

I'm not sure what the next few days will bring, i have more rides routed but they are at the very least weather dependent, there is no point in setting off for a five hour ride in the wet, that's just silly and miserable when there's no reason beyond 'going for a ride', the Peak District weather is unforgiving, been there, done that, got the T shirt!

The rides have been providing me with some writing inspiration, possibly for new Gaby and certainly for the continuation of May Queen, so much of my writing is travel inspired and not doing that travel has certainly impacted negatively on my output. Whether it's locations, folk you see along the way, events you attend or witness, they all feed the minestrone of ideas that writers need.

Not sure when my next post will be, before i travel up to Leeds on Friday i expect, but for now,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid