Walking Weekend 2022 - Peak & Lake Districts - Day one - Thursday

For several of us, this year was our first time away since 2019's visit to the Borders - although there was a Trossachs trip for some in 2020. The Peak District was suggested as a possibility at the final night of the Borders trip, so it had been a long time coming.

Ken had arranged for us to break the journey down with an overnight stop in the Lake District, which allowed us to have an afternoon walk there - and the bonus was we were able to catch up again with Rob, who was on the last day of a walking week there with his son.

Two cars had travelled down from Banchory - Dave took Ken and Steve - plus Ruby - whilst Stewart drove Nigel and myself. We arrived in lovely little Pooley Bridge and looked in to our hotel:

We knew Dave's car was ahead of Stewart's, but there was no sign of the 3 of them, so the decision Nigel, Stewart and I had to make was light lunch pre-walk or beers? No contest:

The healthy ones joined us soon after this, having been in the cafe across the road. We then met up with Rob and headed to the start of our walk:

 It was a riverside walk up to a waterfall:

Time for a team selfie:

It was a pretty gentle climb up to this point but then we headed away from the water and up a fairly steepish section which necessitated regular "photo opportunities":

There was one member of our party who had no trouble with the climb - Ruby was in her element:

 Finally we reached the top and from there and on the way down we got some lovely views:

All this exercise needed some replenishment at the nearby Royal Hotel:

Here's the route and stats:

Rob joined us again for dinner that evening in our hotel. Forecasts for the following day were pretty dire and we figured we were going to get wet on our first ever trip to the Peak District.