Cromford Wharf
Wednesday 12 January 2022
7.2 miles Leader. David d.
Weather 6°c. Perfect for time of year.
No. on walk 23
On most of the walks that I have led, recently, the weather has been wet, windy or downright miserable, for once, I can report the it was a lovely sunny day. A very sharp overnight frost, which meant that many of us had to do some scraping before getting the car on the move, but from a walking point of view, it firmed some of the muddy places up a little and most were able to get along without collecting too much on the boots. During the walk we had a total ascent of more than twelve hundred and fifty feet, enabling us to pause on several occasions to view the wonderful landscapes overlooking valley and trees, you’ll see, attached, James and John’s great pictures with a selection of some of those scenes.
We set off, to cross over the River Derwent. Looking down from the bridge, the waters looked clear and fast running, just a shiver running through the mind at the thought of dipping a toe in! We continued along the road to pass under the rail line , turning left onto a many stepped path, up to Wood End, then following path and lane to eventually exit Bow Wood into Lea Bridge. Turning right here, we walked down the, still closed, road to High Peak Junction, where we stopped at the picnic benches for our morning break, fortunately the toilets were open and were well used, “it’s the cold you know”!
Not much traffic, as we crossed quickly over the usually busy A 6, to climb steeply through Birch Wood, crossing over Intake Lane and continuing ahead until reaching the cross paths near to Meerbrook Farm. We now headed west on a long gradient to pass by Wigwellnook Grange Farm. On reaching the Oakerthorpe Road, we ventured left, taking the first turn right into Little Bolehill. We strode down through the pretty hamlet of Little Bolehill into Bolehill itself, although the route seemed to be straight through, there were many side-turns, resulting, for a moment the head losing the tail, but a couple of loud shouts brought us back together again. As a clue for our lunch spot, I’d put in the description ‘lunch amongst the fossils’, not many I fancy, guessed that our lunch-stop as being at The National Stone Centre, on top of what was, millions of years ago, a Tropical Lagoon.
I would have loved to have stopped and explored the area, but we were constrained by time, in that most of our parking tickets expired at two. The next two miles to the finish was either flat or sharply downhill, so we made our way swiftly along the High Peak Trail for about a mile, then to take a field path to join Intake Lane near to Carrwood Farm, continuing downhill to cross over the A6 once more and so back to the Wharf and car park, arriving there five minutes before the hour. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
