We had a very easy morning walk to the top of High Peak via grassy farm tracks with good views despite the coldest weather I have experienced so far on my travels - it was only 9 degrees!!
Me on the left at the top of High Peak (1400m)
At lunchtime, I had to give an impromptu presentation on my Churchill Fellowship and how walking in the UK differs from NZ. I then had 3 minutes to eat my lunch!
After lunch, the party split, with some taking the easy path back to the cars (1 hour) and the majority of us opting to climb to a ridge and then take the longer route back. Well, an hour's detour turned into 2 and a half hours as we "bush bashed" a path through head high broom, gorse, "supple jack" vines and beech forest!!! We were never lost as the leader had excellent map and compass skills but he was following someone else's recce notes and so we were not sure exactly where to descend from the ridge to the bottom. After being scratched and slipping on muddy terrain, we eventually found the road and an easy walk back to the cars. The group were at great pains to insist that it was not their usual walking style!!! Still, we all got back in one piece, even if we did all need a good hot bath!
A mountain goat having a good laugh at us:
I learned a lot about the way the group works through chatting to members on the walk and they are very well organised, with over 400 members. They have different grades of walks from 1 (easy) to 4/5 (hard/technical) and walks are planned in 4 month blocks with each person on the planning group allocated a month to look after, whereby they find leaders willing to lead the chosen walks for that month (although some leaders do come forward with their own ideas for walk) and then the leaders are responsible for recceing the walk and contacting landowners for permission if needed. I also learned a lot more about landowners' attitudes to access.
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