Personel : Olivier de Bull - Green Knight of the Outer Circle.
                   Christiano son of Aitken- Chief Bard of Weltonia.
                   Prince Luke son of George- Troubadour of the Birch Wood.
                   Grandpierre Markles- First earl and Lord Viscount of San Giles.

Chritiano, Olivier and the Prince (Luke)

"I take it our walk is being blogged, Mark" asserted Olly with passive confidence.
" Err, yeah I'm on to it Oll"
I think to myself, these days it seems that the world wants to know everything, Blogfans do put me under so much pressure!

This was a walk in our beautiful Peak District in Derbyshire. Writing this Blog was a bit like playing the Yes/No game inasmuch as I couldn't mention the S word, the place where we normally go walking, the North of Sc... that was close!

It's a bit like the Football league, four divisions: division two, one, the Championship and the Premiership. The Lincolnshire Wolds are in division two, the Peaks are in division one, the Lake District is in the Championship and that other place in the North of the country where the real mountains lie is the Premiership (sorry Sean I hope you don't find that offensive). Make no mistake these young lads are climbing the divisions!

Ollie with feet off the ground!

Christiano jumps for joy at the sound of 'bungalow Bill'

Edale is strategically situated in the Valley that bears it's name. A delightful olde worlde village in a perfect enclave of limestone amidst rising and falling contours of green. Interestingly the satellite hamlets that all end in the word 'Booth', were originally Herdsmans  basic shelters in the Middle Ages but still bare the name of their original requirement- Upper Booth, Barber Booth, Nether Booth and Grindsbrook Booth.

We seemed to gain height effortlessly as we chattered away. In no time at all we were face to face with 'Ringing Roger'. This is a weird, contorted rocky outcrop that has been shaped by centuries of wind and rain, it looks more like the work of a facetious modern day random Sculptor. It became a mountain playground for these young lads but as they got into several spectacular situations, it wasn't an accident that worried me so much as having to explain things to their Mothers!

The Prince aka Moses, commands the waves

When walking Peak District trails you may come to realise that a lot of the time you are actually walking on paving slabs. Now granted this does take away that Wilderness edge a little, you might even get that ' mmm I think somebody has been here before' feeling but I reasoned with myself, this is not Sc..., that Wilderness place up North, here you are in a beautiful part of the country that is within the scope of a two hour car ride for a catchment area of about twenty million people!*  Hence, the fact you are walking on paving slabs is in a large way protecting our countryside from being scarred beyond recognition by the boots of countless thousands of visitors. You just don't have these population centres in ... erm other areas towards the North of our beautiful island.
*the Writer of this Blog is prone to the odd bout of exaggeration.

Ollie with both feet on the ground

Our dander round the Kinder West circuit was a sheer joy. To the North lies the vast expanse of the mysterious Kinder Scout Plateau, to the  south are Lose Hill and Hollins Cross, gracing the skyline like castles in the air. Our immediate vision is drawn hungrily to the village of Edale way down in the tweed of the valley. It descends in one perfectly symmetrical Wagnerian sweep. Life was good.

Our trajectory was towards Grindsbrook Knoll, an imposing hill reminiscent of a Headmaster towering over disobedient schoolchildren. In an ideal situation we would have bagged Jacobs Ladder further West but the prospect of an unplanned benightment scared me out of my wits more than one of the lads having a slip. You don't know their Mothers!

On the positive side, seeds of expansion have been sown in this area. For all it's bravado, Grindsbrook Knoll was like a New Age warrior that had lost the will to fight. It was a smooth promenade to it's stony summit but with the implacable enthusiasm of these lads they will soon graduate to bigger mountains in the Motherland! Well I still haven't said ... you know, that.... word.

With the descent of Grindsbrook our cirque of the surrounding hills was complete. All afternoon the odd wandering band of sunshine softened the scenery giving it that golden touch of nature's brush but to be honest this is the sort of place that would bring out some pigment in the land in any type of weather.

As we reached the valley the Lads took to doing a spot of tree climbing. When you're young and bristling with enthusiasm some trees just demand to be climbed. Me, I had a bit of 'time out' and scribbled down a few words. The River Noe provided a strong aural backdrop. Whether they remain as they are, I make them rhyme or add them to a Poem cycle, I haven't got a clue at the moment but here is what I was moved to write-

Here again

bits of me
fragments in time
like stamps in an album
or old photographs
memories scattered about
I sit here alone
looking up at The Nab
where we had all just walked
turning the pages of the photo album
page by page
I first got my love of walking here
when I was about eleven years old
a lot has happened in between
the River Noe still roars by
it hasn't changed a bit
but I have
and I' m 'here again'
page by page
the lads are back now
the photo album goes back on the shelf
there is a sense of completeness
about a set of stamps!
there is a sense of longing
to the contents of an old photo album

Well there we are my Deer Blogfans that was a quick blog wasn't it and I think I deserve commendation for managing to complete the blog without mentioning the S word. Actually the amount of time we got stuck in traffic on the way here and on the way back we could have made it up to Scotland. Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhh!!!!!!!


ktda, Markles.

(please feel free to comment)