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PAST EVENTS PAGE 63

PEAK DISTRICT RUN - SUNDAY 7th APRIL 2002

Stuart, Fred and Doris prepare lunch

The assembly point for our run was at the Tesco car park at 11am. Rosemary from way down south confirmed that they would be staying Saturday night with friends at Ashbourne. Richard and son Thomas together with Fred and Doris, Lauren and Mark also gave notice and it was pleasing to note that at least five cars would be present. As it turned out there were seven cars as Paul and partner had arrived to take part.

I had prepared some chicken joints in the microwave the night before and carefully wrapped them twice in food film. Along with other food purchases filling a large cool box together with two self lighting barbeques, set off from Loughborough at about 10.15am.

Fortunately, the main A50 to the meeting point was very quiet and by dint of some engine cobweb removal found myself entering the car park at about 7 minutes to 11. There was a cool breeze blowing but not one cloud in the sky and everyone commented on the glorious weather.

We all got together and chatted for some time while various people bought provisions at the food store.

Rosemary led the first part of the journey towards Ashbourne (we could have taken the route I had travelled on a recce about a month ago but wasn’t too happy about the lack of road surface).

Leaving the A523 we then went along minor B roads through very pleasant undulating countryside until we stopped at Butterton. The Derbyshire villages are almost quaint with an abundance of buildings built using the local stone – instead of the usual boring brick.

We then agreed to meet at the carpark at Milldale any member wishing to take any alternative route were welcome. (one of the snags of car club runs is that it is a bit of a procession and inevitably the average speed is drastically reduced with possible hazards to other motorists). We were lucky in that the roads were almost bereft of traffic and no hold ups were apparent.

At Milldale we managed to squeeze our fleet into one end of the car park and Fred and I busied ourselves lighting the BBQ’s (Fred and Doris – the inveterate travellers had of course come extremely well prepared and their equipment consisted of a foldaway barbeque, charcoal, lighters, food, chairs, crockery, cutlery etc. etc.

After the food and drink were finished (yours truly had a can of larger brought back from a visit to the Milldale hostelry by two members about a mile away).

We then proceeded to Tissington Hall which involved an alpine stretch of downward twists and turns followed by a 30ft cobbled ford whose water depth must have been the best part of a foot. The different ways cars went through this was interesting – varying from very slow with high engine revs to emulating the bow wave of a high powered speedboat!

Everyone made it without mishap and again we stopped at the village centre which incidentally was in the middle of an enclosed estate presumably the total land belonging to the Hall.

It was then suggested to visit Carsington Water – a fairly recent new reservoir constructed to provide additional capacity in the Severn Trent water network.

From the tranquil scenes of the villages we passed through and lingered awhile, the arrival at Carsington was like entering Blackpool on a Bank Holiday – we couldn’t even find enough spare places out of the 1000 plus in order to car park together. However the facilities were excellent including a very informative Severn Trent permanent exhibition which gave a good insight into the huge water industry. A short stroll along the water’s edge in the still strong sunlight completed an interesting club run.

Everyone appeared to enjoy the day out – fortunately blessed with good weather and it was suggested we repeat it in the autumn. Also mooted was that we plan ahead various stopping places so that there would be less risk of causing snarl ups and that drivers could travel at different speeds. (Guess who?).

Stuart Kynoch