After a very busy time at work things had settled down to the point where I could take a week off, so the question was where to go. My first thought was back to the North East but diary commitments would have meant putting that off until October or only having a few days away, neither of which really suited. Another option was Derbyshire where I had some unfinished business with a couple of the old railway lines, and that fitted well with a visit to the 009 Society’s 50th anniversary event in Staffordshire as I could visit that on my way home.
I then needed to choose a site, there was no chance of booking Chatsworth at such short notice, I’d been to Belper and Carsington Water, so that left Buxton, which is well located and the fact it’s a town I’ve been through without really visiting adds another good reason for stopping here.
I decided on a leisurely journey up, avoiding motorways, which worked out well enough. Having been driving an automatic since my last trip in the ‘van I did forget the clutch when pulling up a couple of times but only actually stalled once! It soon comes back but I do miss the driver aids of the newer vehicle. For once I was fortunate with traffic, the only delay was showing as a whole three minutes and wasn’t even that long, so I avoided the stop start traffic that plays havoc with my left leg. I stopped at Sainsbugs in Ashbourne to get some fresh stuff but also visited a farm shop just outside Buxton - I’d sussed this out and it’s mainly a butchers but I did get the necessaries for breakfast.
I was wondering on the way up where to stop for lunch, as I was going to be too early for the site, but that was easily resolved when I saw the High Peak Bookstore and Cafe - I think the only thing that could be better is a bookstore and pub combined. There was one railway book, on preserved industrial steam engines, that I might have been interested in but I did have a look and decided it wasn’t worth the £20 price tag. I may visit again at the back end of the trip when I can afford to fill up the limited storage space in the ‘van. The lunch menu was interesting, basically sandwiches and salads, but the Stilton Pork Pie Platter sounded good, and didn’t disappoint.
Although I wasn’t short of fuel I knew I needed to fill up at some point so went in towards the centre of Buxton rather than cutting across directly to the site, that also helped fill up a few minutes so I arrived just about on the 1pm earliest arrival - inevitable there were a few units already ahead of me! The processing system changed during and after COVID so now, at least on busy days, you get greeted and checked in at the entrance, then go and find your pitch before visiting the office to complete the process. The other change is that, since they introduced a small booking deposit, you can opt to pay in advance which saves faffing about with cards - it all works very smoothly and quickly.
As it was very hot I did little in the afternoon, just read a bit and watched some rugby. Unfortunately the views from the ‘van are dreadful (not!) This is just behind my pitch.
I’m posting this early evening before I settle down to watch England v Argentina, possibly the game that will define the World Cup for the Red Rose. I’m not optimistic but hope I’ll be surprised. 😊
Added for the history books, England (well George Ford) 27, Argentina 10 after Tom Curry was sent off within 3 minutes.
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