Bradford Dale and Lathkill Dale ...

I walked along beside the river from Alport passing Rheinstor Rock ...

The sun shone on a cool spring day ...



I reached the delightful packhorse bridge as I drew near to Youlgreave ...

Someone who had passed this way before had lost or mislaid a camera ...



After crossing the road in Bradford [part of Youlgreave] I continue upstream with the river now beside me on the left ...




  ... and crossed the old clapper bridge ...



The cottages and gardens of Bankside rise in an unplanned fashion above the river ...



I turned around further along the dale to take in the path behind me, there was no one around ...



The river can be very still ...



As I walked up the dale I wondered how many other dales have a manhole cover in the path ?



  Looking at these photographs I can almost feel the chill in the air ...

I swung right over the bridge towards the top of the dale ...

 

The path on the western side of the dale rises up to the car park in Yougreave ...



Once I had got to the top of the main road running down through Youlgreave I followed it to reach the old Co-operative store ... now a Youth Hostel ...

 

The Church of All Saints stands at a staggered crossroads in the village, rising high above the road ...



  Depending on where you look parts of this church date back to the 12th century ... or is it the 13th or 14th ?

Walking down Coalpit Lane towards the River Lathkill, a couple of nosey so and sos interrupted my reverie ...



Coalpit Bridge takes a bridleway across the river before climbing steeply up the side of the dale into the fields above ...



 A heavily used footpath took me back to Alport. There was a time, not so long ago, when this path was unfenced ...




This walk was followed on the 18th March 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 3.85 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 66.57 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 18th March 2011 ~ 594.62 miles
 
16 of 2011
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Feet together/poles apart ...

Having taken Abiraterone for two weeks now I can report that I feel better generally but I still have some discomfort in my groin ... so I bought myself some walking poles to make walking easier.

They were just £15, hardly top of the range, but they should take some pressure off my hips and pelvis etc.

In the event, just this afternoon, I walked for just 45 minutes, quite slowly from Alport up to the packhorse bridge near Youlgreave ...


 

I'm not a big fan of walking poles but at least they enabled me to get out into the countryside. This may be as good as it gets unless my pelvis improves ... somehow.

We'll see.

The other news is that the Abiraterone hasn't affected my kidneys or potassium levels etc. The pharmacist declared yesterday that the results of Tuesday's bloodtest were "absolutely fine".

Finally my compact digital camera has gone kaput so I'm going to have to replace it or stick with my SLR which is bigger and more cumbersome. The two photos above were taken with my phone !

It will be interesting to see how my groin/pelvis feels during the night and in the morning. It is surprising how you don't realise as you turn over in bed how your body 'corkscrews' on your pelvis  ... until you have a problem with your pelvis. Ouch.

Walking in Heaven ...

We parked at Alport [pronounced All-port] at the bottom end of Lathkill Dale just 4 or 5 miles from Darley Dale ...

We walked down to the bridge over the river, looking for trout beneath ...

 There were trout to be seen though not so many as there are below Raper Bridge upstream.

Then we were walking beside the road towards Hawley's Corner but on the right hand bend we crossed to the path which runs just south of Baltic Wood ...



The path rises above the road and brings you to what had been Shining Bank Quarry. I have seen plans suggesting that the quarry would be allowed to return to nature with some tweaking ...



It's a big hole at present and I don't suppose that it's going to change much except perhaps to grass over a bit more.

There are a number of options near the quarry. We took the path heading north-west and tried to follow a line through Haddon Plantation where the OS White Peak Map shows the path. In the event, on the ground, it's easier to walk along the south-western side of the wood.

The path crosses a field and crossing the path is a stream that needs to be bridged as it is too wide too jump ...



 We walked to the top of the field and managed to cross.

A signpost shortly afterwards shows the options avaialble then. We'd just come from the direction shown as 'PUBLIC FOOTPATH' !

We decided to head for Wigger Dale before forking left towards Over Haddon. There was a trig point just over the wall from the path ...



What I would give to have 20 minutes with that trig point and a pot of white emulsion ... I just want to see my trig points white.

We took a ninety degree turn then down towards Conksbury Bridge along this 'quiet lane'.



Beside the small parking place at Conksbury Bridge, a seat with a memorial plaque ...



Looking over the bridge it looked as though the River Lathkill had flooded recently.



The next bridge downstream is a crossing place for walkers, horse riders and cyclists ~ Raper Brige. A lovely packhorse bridge where you can sit and have a coffee on the stonework and admire the trout on the downward side of the bridge - but don't feed them ! The water bailiff will be unhappy [and so he should be].



Natasha and I often walk on country lanes and roads if it means usng a different path or just enjoying the houses beside the road. So we walked up the old lane past Raper Lodge to come out into Youlgreave before descending into Bradford and the dale. Then we turned left and walked back to the car through Bradford Dale ...



Shown in the photograph above there's another lovely old packhorse bridge over the river ... and there's a seat just on the right, tucked around the corner, right beside the bridge.

Date of Walk ~ 27th March 2010

Length of walk ~ 4 miles

Total walked so far in 2010 ~ 51 miles

Total walked since 1st September 2009 ~ 181 miles

 11 of 2010