Peak District, England

Hartington Hall

Next stop was the Peak District. This area is called the Peak District because there are lots of... peaks of course!

After a train from Oxford to Matlock, a bus from Matlock to Buxton and another bus from Buxton to Hartington, we finally arrived at our YHA Hostel - Hartington Hall. We took a leisurely stroll in the Peaks in the afternoon. And saw the amazing English countryside, and lots of sheep!! The sun was out, but the air was still abit "fresh". After our walk we had a beer and crisps in the local pub. This is where I discovered... Scampi Fries!!! Dinner was cooked from tins and frozen stuff from the local grocery store....

How beautiful is English country side?! :)

The next day we ventured out on a 10 mile walk - about 15kms for you metric peeps. We started off just the two of us, but about 10 minutes into the walk at the first turnoff, an old boy was looking abit lost.... So we thought we'd be nice and we helped him along the way and he joined us on our walk to Alstonfield.

A Cheeky Pose with our Hiking Buddy!!

GAFFA!

Along the way to Alstonfield, we climbed up a very high 'peak'. The view was absoloutely amazing when we got to the top. Well worth it. The map that the YHA Hostel gave us wasn't very good, but we managed to get to Alstonfield without getting lost. We walked through more paddocks of sheep and cows. Lotsa poo and mud.

a cow about to lick itself....

At Alstonfield we stopped off for a beer at the George Pub, and our new friend joined us too.

Back to Hartington now!! It started to rain, thankfully Gaffa and I invested in Gortex jackets. The old guy hit his head on a  tree branch :( Gaffa felt his pain. The old guy had this theory, that with less hair he hurt his head alot more, and thought that his hair might've had sensors to detect stuff and stop him from hitting things in his earlier days... hmmm I think it's just the old age, mate...!!

so green!

We finally got back to Hartington, after the long 4 hour walk. Gaffa and I decided to have scones and tea, and funny enough, the old guy joined us for afternoon tea. I think he was lonely, because when we got back to the hostel he was asking us when we were having dinner.

Gaffa also found out that Hartington Hall was built by the Bateman family - designed by  Thomas Osbourne Bateman...It was a really nice building, too bad Hugh Bateman sold it....

run back to mummy, little lamb!