A Winter’s Escape to The Peak District – Twixmas and New Year, 2015-16 – Part 2

Today dawned a stark contrast to yesterday, a gorgeous crisp winter’s morning with not a cloud in the sky. Today we were saying a reluctant goodbye to Topley Head Farm, and moving onwards, about 8 miles, to another Caravan Club CL- Flagg Hall. We really liked being at Topley Head Farm and cannot get over its price tag of £10 pn. The pitches were spacious, cracking views and all the facilities that we needed. We are stunned we were the only ones there for 4 days!

Seeing as the weather was so good, I was itching to get up and play with my new toy, which I got for Christmas, a Parott Bebop Drone with full HD camera. We took it up to 25 m, and even with some wind leftover from the previous day’s storm the video was fab, and I can’t wait to use it again! It offered some lovely views of the campsite and the surrounding area (and also highlighted how dirty Bluebell the Motorhome’s roof is!!!) http://youtu.be/EyCrb7aB5L4

 

We headed the short journey into Buxton, to find a supermarket where we stocked up, and then carried on back to Eyam, as we wanted to visit the National Trust Eyam Hall (we also got National Trust membership for Xmas!) – it was closed on Monday when we were there.

 

We spent an hour or so looking around the old Jacobean Manor house – it was set out well, with each room being set out at Christmas time in a different year. An interesting feature was a poem engraved into an upstairs window glass pane, thought to be from the the 1700s and written by the master of house.

Onsite was The Eyam Buttery (closed when we visited) and the Eyam Real Ale Company – obviously we had a look and came out with a lighter purse! It was a great little shop, with all the ales and a few ciders coming from within 25 miles of Eyam. For Keith, the winner was the Chatsworth Gold Ale. He loved it! My cider was 9% strong but very tasty!

 

We moved onto our next site, Flagg Hall CL – only 10 mins down the road to our previous site. The site is on the front lawn of Flagg Hall, and has space for 4 units on hardstanding, but 5 or possibly 6 on the grass (not at this time of year though- it was soggy!) At £12 a night, again it offered only the basics, a water pipe, electric and loo point, but it was very pretty and I imagine in the summer its a very popular area as there are lots of footpaths surrounding the site.

 

We spent New Years Eve in our jim jams,( rock and roll huh?! ) drinking champagne and Chateau-neuf du pape whilst eating prawn cocktail and a delicious fillet steak. We watched all the drivel on the telly and fell asleep about 11pm, stirring just before big ben chimed midnight. Perfect!

Weather forecast was ok for the morning, so we got up fairly early – well 10am! and had a quick bacon baguette before donning the walking boots. We didn’t want too much of a hike, but found a good circular walk up a quiet lane for a mile or so up to the A515 – where we joined The High Peak Trail for a little stretch before coming back onto the road and finding The Bull i’th Thorn’- an ancient pub right on the High Peak Trail. What a great find- its wooden wall panels and ancient fireplace gave it a homely feel and the beer was good. What more can you ask for? We joined the Limestone Way which took us back to Bluebell in Flagg. It was about 5 miles in total (although Keith’s memory map was saying 8.5 miles for some reason!)

We’d been carting around a boneless leg of Venison since the start of the week which we had for NY Day tea- my goodness me, it was yummy! We spent the evening playing games, and watching a film, another lovely day!

Saturday dawned wet and wild, and with the forecast not looking like it was going to improve we decided to quit whilst we were ahead and load up the van and come home. We both start work again on Monday and needed to get the decs down at home etc, so we were on the road for 10am and back and unloaded by 2.30pM after just over 400 mile round trip.

We’ve had a lovely relaxing break and are looking forward to pointing the van west toward Wales over February Half term. Before then, I must get our new website stickers onto Bluebell, and she’s got her MOT and Hab check…. keep your fingers crossed for us!

Until Next Time

Lx