Walk in the White Forest

We awoke to a clear sky on Sunday 22May. With a refreshing good night's sleep behind me I donned my boots and walking clothes (no, not shorts) and left the cottage early. Sunrise here is 5:00am and sunset 9:00pm but often cloud gets in the way so I tend to "make hay while the sun shines" and so set off for an impromptu fast walk in the surrounding countryside. As long as you keep your bearings, it's fairly easy to leave these villages in one direction and return from another and this is what I achieved in an hour, using a variety of public footpaths, roads, and even part of a disused former rail route now converted to what is known as the Monsal Trail.

By the time I returned to the cottage Mary was up and about, the sun streaming through the kitchen windows. A quick check of the very good online forecast revealed that we were likely in for a sunny morning and possible rain in mid-afternoon. Over breakfast Mary suggested we use up the morning with a hike through Monsal Dale. Done deal!

Map image sourced from website of AA (no not that one, the motoring association), whose guide book we took on the walk.

We'd planned this 9km hike before leaving Australia, needing only good weather and several spare hours to fit it in. By 9:00am we were climbing the steady incline NW from the village through stone-wall-edged fields. Mary was delighted by a close encounter near here with a red breasted robin, which seemed curious at our passage.

Crossing a style early in the hike. As we climbed, the views steadily became better and better.

Soon we came across a small round pond where we learned, from an informative sign, that there's a program to save the great crested newt from possible extinction. Peering into the pond we could easily see several newts going about their business. As I explained to Mary, as a child growing up not too far from here I used to catch newts and temporarily imprison them, for close inspection, in a jam jar. I hope their conservation program succeeds.

Surprising to me was that we had the trail pretty much to ourselves, at least in the first section which terminated at the Monsal Head carpark, which overlooks the massive viaduct spanning the River Wye. We paused for an ice cream then plunged down into the dale to cross the viaduct and follow the meandering trail along the right bank of the river back to our village.

One of several ex-railway tunnels along the Monsal Trail. The railway was decommissioned many years ago and now cyclists, equestrians and pedestrians have free use of the former rail path.

The meadows along the Wye are right now sprinkled with daisies and buttercups. Wildflowers were abundant and an especially enjoyable facet of the hike.

Can any of you keen gardeners identify this species?

Walking through a forest decorated with what we believe are wild garlic flowers.

And a short movie of the wild garlic experience:

Walk in a white forest Tap once for sound, twice to like. Wildflowers (wild garlic?) in Monsal Dale, England, May2016. #monsaldale #england #garlic #walks #wildflowers

A video posted by Mary & Kev Long (@noosatravellers) on May 22, 2016 at 10:16pm PDT

It had taken almost four hours, we'd climbed and descended 200m several times, and even made a new friend, 75 year old Bob Miller from Atlanta, GA, USA, who accompanied us for a while on the trail. The wildflowers were the best part but we really enjoyed the exercise and it was great to get home and put the feet up for a while.

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Kev Long
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The technical stuff:
Our main iPad is connecting to the Internet mainly through a cellular connection provided (prepaid, 3gb for three months for £16) by the UK "Three" network. On high ground and in town environments this connection has so far proven quite good but, as in Australia, some places lack good coverage so no or poor connection. There are quite a few WiFi options available too although not always advertised. Just ask if you're unsure if available. All except two of our accommodation reservations include free WiFi which is of course the preferred method of transferring large amounts of data but I have been posting these blogs and their images sometimes using only a cellular connection either from inside our accommodation or on the roadside.

Mary's iPhone is operating using an Australian SIM card (Optus prepaid) which is roaming while in the UK and gives us the ability to make phone calls (not cheap) and send and receive SMS. It also uses WiFi, can connect directly to the Internet through the local cellular system (expensive), and use a Personal Hot Spot provided by the iPad (essentially free as the iPad connection is prepaid).

Location:Greaves Lane,Bakewell,United Kingdom