The Moors
July 26th
Today we took a joint Peak Park/National Trust walk from the Bowden Bridge car park near Hayfield. The walk was advertized as a moderate 8 kilometer walk. We started at 10:30 a.m. and returned at 3:30 p.m. It was a long, long very long 8 kilometers. We saw how they are managing the moors for the wildlife. They use controlled burns to promote young heather growth. Then the older growth heather is used for shelter. The dry sandy path then became the riverside path with wet boggy spots. Then we climbed off the trail to a see a small pond on the moor where mermaids are supposed to live and you can see them if you come upon them and remain very quite. Our shoes were very dirty but they did come clean after a wash in the washing machine.
When we got back to our cars from the walk, we were told that the shops closed at 4:00 p.m. on Sundays and we needed vegetables for our soup and milk for our cereal. Well they were right. The Safeway in Buxton and the Sainsbury in Bakewell were shut however luckily the SPAR store in Bakewell was open and we were able to get what we needed. Ironically, it turned out that the grocery store in Tideswell just down the road from our cottage was open until 5:00 p.m. on Sundays. Once we got home I rushed to the laundrymat in Tideswell to dry some of our clothes. 50p for only about 10 minutes of drying. Back home for a nice hot bowl of chicken soup, cheese, bread and fruit. The bread in England is always wonderful and then the real butter made it even better. The kids went out to feed the ducks in their pajamas. We saw the owners on the cottage since they had come down for a walk since they only live in Buxton, a 6 mile drive. They brought us some information on the shows in London. We were able to call on the pay phone and make our reservations for this weekend using our credit card to pay for the tickets. We did some more clothes washing. We called Muriel , my aunt, and Anna, a penpal of Martha, at the telephone kiock in Litton Mill and everything went well with our first payphone call. Their phones have a digital readout of the time remaining on your call. You can also get change if you don't use the entire time as long as you put in small enough coins.
A note from Martha about our trip to the moors: Heather and I went into the men's toilet by mistake just before the big hike. Heather asked "aren't those urinals?" and we dashed out screaming.