Day 3: The Peaks

This was such a great day again! After training and lunch, my friends and I drove up to the Blue John Caverns – these underground caves found in a hillside in the Peak District. This was a good task for me, because I have a small phobia of small enclosed spaces and it is time I started to overcome this. Fortunately I had the support of my friends to help me through this tight situation…

The first hundred meters you have to sightly hunch over to fit through this long and narrow passageway, which made me panic a little, but there after was large spacious caves which were fascinating. The rock walls and covered with ‘Blue John’ rock – this blue/purple and yellow stone with crystals in – these caverns are the only place this type of Blue John rock is found. The tour was pretty interesting, the caverns were great visually and this was time very well spent.

 

When you exit the caverns, you are greeted by an amazing view overlooking the valley.

We then made our way to Derwent Reservoir’s Slippery Stones and plunge pool, taking a slight detour getting lost walking in the woods – where we found the tiniest frog. We set up camp near the plunge pool but there were soooo many MIDGES, we were all eaten alive. We were not a happy bunch. We were, however, determined to stay until our BBQ food was cooked!

 

Don’t be fooled by our deceptive smiles. We were not happy with the millions of midges that crashed our picnic.

We were saved from misery by our crazy friend Joel who arrived (after a 2 hour cycle) and immediately jumped into the ICE COLD plunge pool. Challenge accepted, we followed this craziness and jumped in ourselves. It was freezing. Doggy paddling over to the others and screaming it was so cold, I momentarily forgot about the midges -until we got out of the water (very quickly) and were attacked by a hungry swarm.

 

We then made our way to our final destination on some remote hill overlooking Lady Bower, to watch the sunset, chill and eat our picnic dinner.

A trek downhill through a field of bracken in the dark finished our visit to the peaks.

Even though I am covered head to toe with irritating midge bites, this trip has made a definite top 3 finish day so far of my 30 Day Challenge 🙂