Autumn Storms Over Cakes Of Bread (Part 3)

We didn’t spend too long over lunch, just long enough to eat some sandwiches, have a drink of coffee and jiggle my socks around a bit to try and ease the problem with my heels. I thought that if I removed one pair it would loosen my foot in the boots thus taking away the pressure on my heels. It seems that a seam in the heel of the boot was cutting in to me. Anyway soon after setting off for Back Tor it was obvious that things were worse and not better, it felt like the little man was now using a saw instead of his chisel so within a few hundred yards I was stopped re-jiggling the socks back to the way they were before. It did make things a bit better, that and walking as flat footed as possible which wasn’t easy climbing a hill as I was. It was more or less all up hill to Back Tor. After climbing a while I would stop for a rest, usually to look back to see how far we had come but my feet were better off if I just kept going for some reason.

Looking back to Abbey Brook

On reaching the broad ridge that lead to Lost Lad we met the wind in all its glory. Tommy looked at me as if to say, ‘where did that come from’! With a little encouragement from me he was soon chasing round after his tail, that was until he got caught by the wind and was blown sideways in to a bog. I told him that it served him right for playing silly beggars and if he didn’t get himself cleaned up he was walking all the way home.

The climb to Lost Lad was quite easy because we had the wind at our tails. On the top the wind was doing all it could to blow us back off again. All around the sky was grey, the weather was closing in fast and even as we stood there it came on to rain. I’d had my coat on since lunch break but thought it was now time to get my water proof trousers on as well. I got them out of the sack and made several attempts to get a leg inside them but all I achieved was someone sort of dance, a very fine one with many complicated steps I might add but as that wasn’t what we were supposed to be doing and our objectives was no closer than when we started I decided to give up on the trousers and head off for Back Tor were there might be some shelter from the rocks.

The climb to Lost Lad

As we reached Back Tor my phone started to ring, it was Vicki wanting to know if I wanted her to get me a new harness for Tommy, it was just about impossible to hear her with the wind roaring around the rocks and the rain beating on my hood, also Tommy had done a disappearing so I had to cut her off until I could find shelter. I found Tommy hiding in the rocks with an old couple. He was jst telling them how I drag him away from the fireside on these long walks in all weathers without any food, you know, all the usual stuff. I told them to take no notice as he was just playing for sympathy in the hope of acquiring one of their sandwiches. I dragged away, he wasn’t very happy but I told him they were probably all soggy with the rain anyway.

Approaching Back Tor

We found out own little hole in the rocks and phoned Vicki back, then broke open the first aid kit and robbed it of two plasters, one for each heal and then managed to get my waterproof trousers on. Before leaving I got Tommy one of his biscuits, I didn’t want him calling in on his new found friends telling them I didn’t bring his coat along or some other tail of mistreatment.

Looking across the moors to Wheel Stones

The next part of our journey will take us along the Derwent Edge past ‘Cakes of Bread’, ‘Dovestone Tor’, ‘Salt Cellar’, ‘White Tor’ and on to ‘Wheel Stones’.