Days 403, 3/31, 1,167, 404, 4/31, 788, and 405, 5/31, 17,406

Thursday May 6th

I have not got up yet; it’s 9 am after a somewhat lousy sleep. But yesterday was different, not like this morning…

Up to the end of yesterday, I had achieved 53,733 steps over three of the first five days of my month long challenge for Christian Aid. On Monday, a cold wind blew and the iced rain fell like stair rods, with just one very brief dry spell in the evening when I strolled merely to the end of the Lane.

Roger, my neighbour over the road was due for lunch on Wednesday, and I had given up on any idea of walking this week while the weather forecasts were so discouraging. But, yesterday, there was no howling of the wind from outside. The skies were initially clear; all I needed to do was to dress up warmly and set off to anywhere I wished. A two mile circuit of the “estate” would suffice for the morning, as clouds of all shapes and sizes would gather (and look quite attractive and a little dramatic). I was home in plenty of time to prepare my now “famous” spaghetti bolognese.

For once, I was keen to go walking, and we drove towards the village of Chelmorton before leaving the car at a suitable location and setting off along a well defined footpath (which soon terminated) towards another village, Monyash, perhaps two miles distant.

Start of the walk towards Monyash, 5/5/21

Roger has an impressive understanding of where we are exploring. It wasn’t long before I was being told that we were in what was once a thriving lead mining area which would have looked vastly different from the tranquil pastures we were now walking through. Apparently lead is in parallel seams, and mined from bell-shafts, which from the air, appear as parallel lines.

One of a row of “bell-shafts” so named on account of their shape, widening as they become deeper. The trees on the horizon serve two purposes, 1, to negate the effects of lead pollution, and 2, as a wind-break, protection for cattle etc.

Eventually, after accessing numerous fields via a similar number of awkward styles to clamber over, we reached the outskirts of Monyash, sadly too late for an al fresco cup of tea in a still biting wind. It was, by now, after 5 pm.

This walk, perhaps a little less than four miles, afforded the most spectacular panoramic views of the undulating landscape for most of the way, whether from the fields we traversed or from the road which I chose as an easier but longer alternative route back to where we had left the car.