The Walk That Wasn’t

This time last week, I had Plans to go on a ten mile walk with the Not-So-Smalls and the dog. I had even printed a map off the National Trust websites and downloaded the appropriate OS map onto my phone in preparation, which is the ultimate in organisation for me.

First spanner in the works was Artie refusing to come along, although that one was a pretty easy fix. So then it was just me, Tori, and Chase. Fine.

We got all our stuff sorted – snacks, plenty of water for us and for Chase, the map(s), walking boots ready, dog biscuits, poop bags etc etc – loaded the car park into the SatNav and off we went.

We were headed for Manifold Valley for our walk, with a trip to Thor’s Cave at the start.

So far so good, then we got closer to the final destination and the roads the SatNav had picked for us to use were… slightly alarming.

Now in the heart of the Peak District, the roads can’t help but be a bit steep and windy, that’s perfectly fine, I just wasn’t ready for it to be sending me off down ones that were mere inches wider than my car, with grass down the middle, pot holes deep enough to drop postcards to Australia in, and still two way. As well as steep and twisty.

So yes, there was a very big sigh of relief breathed when we joined the standard small and windy road (which felt like a motorway in comparison to where we had been) into the correct village for the car park.

We pulled up, offered some sympathy to Chase who does not like car trips at the best of times and was stood sadly in a pool of his own drool in the boot of the car, and opened the doors ready to change our shoes and head off.

It was at this point that the Universe/Thor/God sent us a Big Obvious Omen which we should have heeded, but instead just laughed at and set off on our merry way.

As we opened our doors there was a rumble of thunder… followed by an enormous crack of thunder that then rolled around the hills forever, and just as that began to fade out a church bell began to toll… and then someone in the distance screamed.

In hindsight, this was all very classic horror movie and we probably should have just nipped to the car park toilets, let Chase out for a wee, and then gone on somewhere else.

But we did not do that, instead we set off following the path signposted to Thor’s Cave joking about how Thor was clearly in residence that day as more thunder rumbled around us.

Then the rain hit. Very suddenly and very wetly.

Tori tried to run to shelter under a tree with Chase and immediately fell on her backside (no injuries other than to her pride/dignity) which Chase thought was excellent fun and promptly sat on her to make sure *all* of her was muddy.

Did we turn back yet? Nope. Obviously not.

Instead we laughed some more and carried on walking as it stopped raining, pausing to note the quantity of jackdaws and crows present in the surrounding fields and wondering if Odin was hanging out that day as well.

It was pretty slippy after the rain shower, but we managed to just about keep our feet as we crossed the rocky fields to the cliff face that is home to Thor’s Cave.

It did then rain again just before we arrived, just to make sure the rocky cave entrance was nice and slippy for us.

I made the decision to stay outside and not risk the slippery scramble into the cave with Chase – I’m not sure who is the clumsiest between me and him but it just seemed unwise to risk it between us. So Tori headed off to investigate whilst Chase and I enjoyed the view outside, chatted to some other walkers, and got rained on/thundered at a couple more times…

The sun did make the odd brief appearance and transformed the view from moody to bright and airy, it was really quite funny how yin and yang the weather managed to be every five minutes or so.

Once Tori had explored and then slithered down out of the cave entrance (having witnessed the a people who tried to do it standing and ending up on their backsides anyway, the collective agreement was that sitting down and sliding was the best forward!), we consulted the maps and headed off to find the proper start point for our walk.

And failed to find it between rain showers and patches of sunshine that immediately made us too hot.

After some collective grouching and calling the maps some rude names, we decided that we really, really weren’t in the mood for the walk and actually we should have listened to that advice the Universe tried to give us when we arrived in the car park.

So instead we got back in the car and wound our way a couple of miles further down the valley to Ilham Park which is a National Trust property that we had not visited before. We like ticking new places off our NT list so it cheered us up from feeling a little bit like we’d failed at our goal for the day.

The weather settled and we had a lovely lunch at the cafe and enjoyed exploring the grounds and the surrounding village together instead.

All in all we had a good day, even if we didn’t do what we had planned.

And Thor? We are sorry for whatever we said that upset you, and your cave is really cool.