Tuesday 10th September 2024 – Youlgrave to Great Longstone via Alport, Bakewell and Monsal Head (11 miles/5 hours)

After breakfast of tea and toast with peanut butter followed by some of the provided fruit, we set off at about 9am down the hill to the River Bradford and past a couple of wild swimmers, past a chap inspecting the gate to the road and planning what was needed to fix its swing, ‘cos the local organisation responsible would take ages he said, then past a couple back from bird-watching, who confirmed in a a short chat that it we’d seen red kites yesterday.

The route leads around to Alport – it’s all port and no whiskey there, according to our chat with a local – along the River Lathkill which we follow now, passing two horses on the path; yesterday it was just the usual cows and sheep.

We see a dipper on the stones, plenty of ducks and a swan. The river gets even more wild as we go further along and then an area is cordoned off from the public to give vegetation and wildlife free rein.

We come up a hill into the village of Over Haddon, walk through and across the fields, eventually arriving at Bakewell for lunch. I eat the couple of rolls left as we sit on the benches at the roundabout, then we have a stop at the Honey Bun cafe, this for a brew and bakewell pudding and the waitress explains that this comes from the original and best, the exact recipe for the pudding, like the tart/slice is a closely guarded secret, but the pudding differs in having egg to the mix for binding.

Out of Bakewell we take the route to join the Monsal Trail where there are plenty of walkers and cyclists, Katie adopts a dog along the way, which the owners were more than happy to have entertained by throwing a stick for her to retrieve, Nell was her name.

We pass through the well-lit tunnel and up to Monsal Head for fine views.

We rest a while and follow on to Little Longstone pausing at the chapel there and then onwards to our stay for the evening, Great Longstone, and another small chapel which is no longer used for Sunday services as the lady greeting us explained, she now going to the main Anglican church now and pointing out pictures of herself on a photo from the 1950s.

We freshen up and take a walk around the little village to find our pub for the evening, not difficult to decide as only one of the two was open, The Crispin and this was the one that the lady in the chapel had recommended. It was quite old-fashioned as we’ve come to expect and appreciate, with tankards hanging from the ceilings which regulars had donated from own stocks or from foraging at car boot sales; key was they had to cost less then a fiver, or so the manager of the pub explained to us.

It’s a Robinson’s pub. Meals were good – Katie had the veg lasagne and I the last of the veg pies with leek – the lasagne was a little cool and Katie commented about this – overhearing later at another table the caution from the waitress, “take care the lasagne is very hot”.

I had a light pale ale followed by a pint of Unicorn which everyone seemed to be ordering, also explained one of the dishes on the specials board, Steak and Unicorn, I thought this was something for Brexit die-hards as irony, who were always looking for the elusive benefits of leaving but never finding any (since like Unicorns, they don’t exist).