A couple of days ago, I decided to go for a walk over the great ridge at Castleton in the Peak District, Derbyshire UK.
It's a walk I've done before, although not the entire length, there's a part of the ridge that I like to get to and fly my drone, this is usually a quieter part than the top of Mam Tor (aka the Shivering mountain).
I parked up in the national trust carpark at Mam Nick, this is free for NT members, but £4.50 for none members, and this is pay by phone only, the machines do not accept cash.
I was contemplating what to take, it was a hot day, although cloudy, I decided to just take my camera and drone, no camera bag, nor other lenses, I thought I'd travel light, although this had it's consequences not far into the trip up Mam Tor.
(Winnats Pass, can you believe there is a road through this gorge).
As I was heading up the steps of Mam Tor, I said hello to some hikers on their way back down, then I tripped, camera straight on to the floor, one of the hikers asked if I was OK, I replied "Yes thank you, I'm worried about my camera though", thankfully I'd only scuffed the corner of the body, the lens and everything else was absolutely fine, although it has knocked a couple of hundred pounds off the resale value.
(The top of Mam Tor).
The views along the ridge are fantastic, and it was my favourite weather to walk over, with patchy cloud creating shadows over landscape like a patchwork quilt, as you walk over the ridge, there's an abundance in wildlife, but I really do love hearing the song of the skylark, which you could hear on most of the journey.
I love the view over Castleton, with Peveril Castle still standing proud as it has done for 100's of years, the hole in the cliff you can see is actually a tourist attraction aptly named The Devil's Arse.
(Meadow Pippit having five).
Walking back you get a good glimpse of the old road that ran up the side of Mam Tor, you can really see why they call this the shivering mountain, since the road was built it basically had to have constant repairs due to unstable nature of the mountain, it was decided that it had become too costly to keep repairing and so it was left to do it's own thing, the only way up from Castleton now is through Winnats Pass, which is one my favourite roads to drive on.
Natures lightshow was starting early with light rays over the landscape, sadly I couldn't hang around for sunset as this was another 3 hours away and I needed to get back, but you can and do get some fantastic light shows on the top of here thanks to nature.
I call the bloke on top of the mountain "the sheep whisperer" lol. He was just sat there and sheep and lambs were around him with no worries at all, as I got closer I realised he was a photographer and it looked like he was awaiting the sunset, at this moment the light was fantastic.
As I got back to the car, it did start to rain, although a short shower, and I was thinking to myself, this is when the best light is, after a rain shower. But I wasn't heading back up the mountain, I was knackered lol.
I really hope you've enjoyed this little adventure.
Thanks for reading my blog, until next time, all the best :-)