Hayfield, Peak District

A few reminders of our weekend

- Charlie "Heads-up" Grant
- Pete "Tight-@rse" Smith
- Simon "Unlucky-cards" Piercy
- Tim "Path-finder" Spate
- Dave "19-to-the-gallon!" Noble
- Steve "Ankle-fashion" Barker
- Dave "Techno-geek" Hemsley

Friday

Simon, Charlie and Pete meet at Tim's house. With Barrie sadly missing the weekend, it meant that the breakfast shopping and cooking had to be done by others. Tim got the shopping but this meant that Charlie's talent for luggage packing was challenged like never before. However, as this photo shows, he managed to get all of the stuff and the shopping into Simon's Audi A4 boot.

As last year's Pub Quiz Champions, we return to spend our winnings and we begin by drinking a toast to 'Absent Friends' ... (well, more like 'Absent Breakfast Chefs'!)

Saturday

The Place

The Accommodation

The Audi Owners Club

Pete offered to stand-in for Chef Astbury and produced a superb breakfast for us.

After breakfast we are joined by an old friend (over from Denver, Colorado) - Dave "Ex-Weir engineer" Hemsley - that's him in his hire car, finding somewhere to park. So, off we go, down the long, steep hill that we all dread climbing back up, at the end of a long walk or after the pub.

We arrive at the station ...

... and Simon goes over the bridge to get seven singles to Edale.

(The price had gone up by 30p from last year)

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Who IS this man that keeps appearing on signs?

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The Usual Suspects

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Our train arrives...

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We get off at Edale and begin walking again - we find some weird signs ...

It must be rough round here - the buses arrive in the village like this ...

... and end up like this. (But at least it helps remind Steve of home - Strelley!).

Blankety Blank?

How about "Not" ?

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Water feature

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(Map by Tim Spate)

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The official start of the Pennine Way (the other end is at Kirk Yetholm near Kelso, Scotland).

(Photo by Tim Spate)

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An all too brief moment of some blue sky and sunshine.

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Lunch stop

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The Piercy Pot Noodle pic - but what's this? Wow, a new flavour!

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Then it was off to climb up Jacob's Ladder ...

"This is not like any chuffing ladder I've ever seen!"

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Looking back ...

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Back in Hayfield and time to pop in for a well earned pint.

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Village bonfire.

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Time for a game of cards before we hit the town.

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2 Daves, 2 devices, 2 sad.

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The chosen drinks ...

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While everyone else watches Match-of-the-Day, Dave H grabs some shut-eye.

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Sunday

Steve's unique design of ... erm ... "ankle tucker-inner thingies" - (as yet, un-patented).

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Dave H headed south and we headed off up to Kinder Reservoir ...

(Map by Tim Spate)

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As is traditional, we stop at 11am for 2 minutes silence.

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Kinder Reservoir (with much more water in it than last year - see below).

2007

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Bridge

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When we stop for lunch, a sheep sees Pete "Sheep Sh&gger" Smith and is gone before you can say "Wellies and velcro gloves".

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Approaching the summit.

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Four ways.

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Steve thinks he is being photographed because of the lovely Yukka plant behind him ...

We finally get back, thoroughly knackered, wondering what happened to the "short Sunday walk round the reservoir" that was hinted at. Anyway, after showers and changing we packed up and headed home.

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But let's not forget that it was quite an educating weekend for Pete Smith.

He learned :-

- about Blue-ray discs

- that Madonna is known globally as "Madge"

- that the "Ting Tings" are a band

- that running sixteen 50 Watt halogen bulbs in the kitchen ...

... costs exponentially more than leaving this on stand-by ...

... and switching this off

(Such a tight-@rse)