I was staying at Mark’s last night, which means an early start was always going to be unlikely. We went swimming in Hathersage’s delightful open air heated pool, joined by Nigel, who’ll be cycling with me to London, looked at some local gardens, chatted over tea and toast on Mark’s balcony, and waited for the traffic lights to change.
It was gone noon when Nigel and I set off, so it’s just as well we had a short day, just as far as his parents’ house outside Derby. Clearly there’s some sort of bike equivalent of Parkinson’s Law: however short a day trip you plan, it always ends up taking all day.
And it was a day for dawdling: fine May weather, a light tailwind, and lovely Derbyshire hills. They say that on a clear day from the panorama point here near Crich you can see eight counties. We don’t know about that, but we did count three major power stations.
Miles today: 39
Miles since Cape Wrath: 775