Wolfescote Dale and Beresford Dale from Hartington

A shorter walk today beginning in the village of Hartington and one we've done a few times before.
Leaving the village centre we headed up the road towards Hartington Hall (which is a Youth Hostel) and the followed the narrow road which eventually reached Wolfescote Grange but at a junction where a muddy track continues straight-ahead, we followed this muddy track which brought us to part way down Biggin Dale.
We followed the remainder of Biggin Dale to the junction with Wolfescote Dale with the River Dove flowing past and then turned right to follow the broad surface track, seeing a Heron land on the opposite bank and also a Dipper further along.
After reaching the northern end of Wolfescote Dale we crossed a large flat field which is often water-logged at this time of the year but due to the unusually dry ground this year, was only a little muddy.
Crossing a foot bridge brought us the Beresford Dale and again a broad track eventually arriving at more fields bordering the village of Hartington and back where we had started.
We stopped in the café by the village centre for a refreshment but found that there was a power cut and it was dark inside but they had some candles on the tables and luckily were able to still serve tea or coffee and cakes!

Curbar Edge, Froggat Edge and White Edge

It was not too cold for the end of November but very windy as Karen and I left Curbar Gap and walked along the top of the popular rock-climbing crags of Curbar and Froggat Edges. These follow each other with Curbar Edge first and due to their elevated positions above the villages of Calver and Froggat, give views to the west into the far distance ranging from Chatsworth House towards the south and over Stoney Middleton and beyond towards the North.
Luckily it remained dry despite the clouds and obvious signs of rain showers in the distance several miles away as we made our way along the path.
At the far end of Froggat Edge we followed a path through a Hazel wood above Grindleford Station and Padley Gorge and entered the park-like grounds of the National Trust's Longwood Estate.
We heard the cry of a Jay and saw a few as the were flitting from tree to tree nearby but becoming hidden once perched in the trees.
At the café housed in one of the Longwood Lodge buildings we had some cups of tea and a bit of cake then continued onwards to join a path crossing a section of White Edge Moor then joining a path continuing below White Edge.
This edge is of no interest to rock-climbers as it hasn't got the large bare cliffs of gritstone but beside the excellent views shared by Curbar and Froggat Edges it has an additional bonus.
White Edge borders the western side of Big Moor which has a herd of wild Red Deer and providing you know what you are looking for, especially at this time of year with the reddish-brown bracken and heather stalks, you can soon spot some of these shy wild animals.
Karen had been used to looking for Red Deer while on holidays to Exmoor where Red Deer are also found and soon spotted several in the distance a few hundred meters away. At on point she counted sixteen deer including some stags.
At one section, because of its position in height with respect to the deer, you could easily see several on the horizon, again with a few stage with their antlers easily visible.
We continued onwards until we reached the trig point then followed a broad path on the moorland heading back towards Curbar Edge.

We retraced our route back to the starting point at Curbar Gap.

Thors Cave from Wetton

We drove across the border at the River Dove near Milldale, through Alstonefield to park in the village car park at the small village of Wetton in the Staffordshire Moorlands. After Karen and I had got our boots on we set off in the sunshine on a surprisingly mild day for the latter half of November walking through the middle of the village which seemed to have quite a few holiday cottages and also seemingly a large population of cats, one of which was having a lie down on a plastic wheely bin in the sun in front of one cottage.

We passed the village pub, “The Royal Oak” and at a road junction by the village church, turned left and followed the road for a short while arriving at a junction with a track where there was a wall stile leading into a field. We followed a route across the field sloping downwards in a shallow valley heading towards the large and obvious rocky feature which is the location of Thor's Cave. Our route crossed another stile and then a short very muddy section dropped down a short way to intersect the path leading up from the Manifold Trail (an old railway track around 80 metres (260 feet) below). The path zig-zagged up with steps made from rocky limestone slabs leading to the symmetrical arch 7.5 metres wide and 10 metres high of Thor's Cave.

We carefully clambered up the sloping and slippery limestone floor (especially with muddy boots!) to gain entry into the large and impressive chamber with a smaller entrance on the right-hand side (looking inwards) and a section of chamber leading to the left as well. After a look around and admiring the view across the Manifold Valley, we again carefully followed the slipper chamber floor back to the path outside the cave and then followed the stepped path to arrive at the Manifold Trail in the valley bottom. Our route crossed the old railway bed then followed a path rising up the opposite side of the valley following through Ladyside Wood bringing us to more pastureland. The public footpath presented us with two others leading to the nearby village of Grindon as we chose the route which avoided dropping down to another small valley only to have to rise up again on the other side.

We walked through Grindon passing a kid's playground by the village church and turned right next to the church and followed a lane heading northwards. We noticed that the sun had disappeared a while before and there was was a cloudy sky in its place, but as we walked along the lane, we found it had begun to get very misty. We followed a route taken by a Public Bridleway down a field and arrived at another which had a large flock of sheep which appeared out of the mist as we made our way to a stile on the opposite side leading to the small Hoo Brook and a path leading down by the brook in a hazel tree wood soon arriving at the old railway station at Wetton Mill. Here we crossed a bridge and had a welcome mug of tea and snack in the café at Wetton Mill. Afterwards, we walked up the minor road leading from the old mill buildings then again followed a public footpath across field heading towards Back of Ecton passing Wetton Hill on our right on a broad track of shorter grass then followed a path around the other side of Wetton Hill heading southwards to arrive back where we had started in Wetton
.

DCRO Practice at Mouldridge Mine

I joined a group of Team Members to a practice at Mouldridge Mine. Karen was feeling under the weather and stayed at home for the day.

The scenario was that a group of children had been taken underground by with some adults and one child had been afterwards to be found missing. In the meantime one of the adults had returned underground to search for the missing child but hadn't yet returned and after a reasonable time, it had been decided to get help.

I arrived first at the parking area by a track next to the main road in the hamlet of Pikehall and was soon followed by Steve and then the DCRO vehicle with Mick and Pete.

Steve was walking backwards directing Pete and Mick forwards with the vehicle but hadn't noticed the low garden wall belonging to the house next tot the parking area, and much to the amusement of Mick and Pete, he stepped backwards and disappeared from view as he fell over the wall!

Unfortunately, the other side of the wall was some four feet lower onto a concrete path but luckily Steve was uninjured except for some grazing and bruising.

Jim and Rosie were stationed at the entrance to the mine with radios for communications. Initially we couldn't get in contact with the DCRO vehicle so Jim tried walking up the far side of the Dale to see if that improved things while I did the same thing on the near side (myself and Mick were the Leaders in charge with Claire controlling things at the vehicle).

Suddenly we heard broadcasts from the vehicle which was a s a result of the large external aerial being set up.

So Jim returned to his initial position be the entrance.

Mick and his team had been given the task of searching on area of the mine while myself and my team were allocated the remaining half. We had copies of a survey with a recommended route for led groups but we were required to search all other areas providing it was safe to do so.

My group soon located one “casualty” (played by Tim) at the bottom of a slope near the set of passages known as the Banana Slide. After a member with a Casualty Care Certificate had made an initial assessment of the casualty (possibly broken or dislocated knee plus a diabetic) two team members were tasked to return to the entrance (only a few minutes away: Mouldridge Mine is fairly small) to report the situation while I and the “Cas. Carer” remained with the casualty and attempted to keep him warm with a Bothy Bag.

The two who had reported the situation returned and suggested we complete our actions and join with Mick's group to assist with their search.

We soon contacted the other group and discovered that their “casualty” (Peter) had been found at the base of a “winze” internal shaft in the mine and had been treated and packaged in a stretcher. So, we assisted with moving the stretcher towards the large chamber just inside the mine entrance.

In the chamber we “released” Pete and then, as there was still some time left, Tim returned to his previous position to be the initial “casualty” and he was moved up the slope and then down the sloping passage to a level passage below while wearing a full-body harness.

Once Tim had been packed in the stretcher and again carried to the same chamber as before and that was the end of the exercise at around 14:00.

The Isle of Man - Thursday 10th – Saturday 12th November, 2011

On Thursday, we drove to Manchester Airport to catch a short flight in the evening to the Isle of Man flying on a FlyBe 78 seater Bomabrdier Q400 Turbo Prop aeroplane. The flight only took about half an hour and we were met by J at the airport, known as Ronaldsway Airport and, in Manx, Purt Aer Vannin.

J and her husband are old friends of Karen's and moved to live at Peel on the Isle of Man earlier this year. We were staying at J's lovely house in Peel very near the sea-front.

Karen had never been on the Island before but I had been twice before during the famous motorcycle TT Races in 1984 and 1985.

On Friday the weather didn't look promising with quite a lot of cloud and J took us on a drive around the Northern part of the island and a walk around Peel Castle which was very close to J's house.

On Saturday J's husband joined us for a drive in the Southern half of the island stopping off at a Glen Maye with a walk passing a waterfall and leading to the beach. We then continued to the Southern tip of the Island and stopped at the café opposite the small island called the Calf at Man where we had something to eat while watching seals and seabirds on the rocks outside.

Afterwards walked to the nearby stone circle called Mull (or Meayll) Circle of at sunset overlooking the village of Port Erin.

After a short while back at their house, J dropped us off at the airport to catch a flight in the evening back to Manchester and then about an hour and 10 minutes later we were back home.