chrome hill

After a belated Valentine's dinner at one of the many local pubs near our house -- and shamefully nearly falling asleep at the table due to the amount of food eaten and the heat from a closeby barbeque -- we had to work off the effects of our 4(!)-course meal.

Hiking -- or more accurately known as walking due to the lack of elevation involved -- is an adventure times two. Firstly, you get to see a different type of scenery, however, mostly fields and rolling hills and not snow-capped mountains, which I am so fond of, and, secondly, it is requires such effort to decipher the instructions on how to get from points A to B in our Day Walks in the Peak District book.

Take, for example:

From the square, walk past the Horsehoe Inn then take Gauledge Lane. Follow this to the farm, then cross the squeeze stile on the left opposite the farmhouse. Bear left to another stile then keep straight on. Ignoring a stile/fingerpost down to the left, keep a straight course to reach a half-hidden stile/fingerpost in the wall on the right, and a road. (p. 118).

Most of the times, I have to read the instructions aloud, one sentence at a time, and several times at that to make sure we don't end up on the wrong farmer's field and, subsequently, being barked at by a dog making sure we don't get too close to his terroritory.

We ventured to Chrome Hill, a narrow limestone ridge, in the Peak District. Never before had we ever had to share the walking route with so many different types of animals: from sheep to donkeys, and from a gobbling turkey, which my husband had to walk between me and it as I was afraid to be pecked at, to a cage of colourful budgies.


Even though the directions for walking in the Peak District may sound a bit confusing, to say the least, you never can get too lost as there are many quaint little villages dotted throughout the area.



It was a beautiful day with blue skies all around but it was cold nonetheless and my toque -- or, more commonly called in England, a woolly hat -- and gloves remained on for the duration of the 5-hour walk.