Visited Buxton

Did my longest drive to date today when Paul and I visited Buxton.

We were supposed to be going with friends camping in Wales, but it got cancelled on Friday morning. I had been looking forward to my first long distance drive and I was disappointed. A work colleague suggested we go to the Peak District and as I have never been before I did a little research on the net and we decided to go to Buxton. It was about 90 minutes driving each way, most of it motorway and fast A roads so it was a good chance to give the car a decent run too.

Some of the roads were so steep that my little car couldn't cope and I had to go up one in 1st gear. At the top of this huge hill we drove into a cloud !!! How cool was that ?

The views across the Peak District were absolutely stunning. It was such a shame that I was driving though as I couldn't take much of it in (for obvious reasons !) Paul took some pictures with the window open on the way back. I was driving at 50 miles an hour and they have come out really well. I will add some to my blog when downloaded and re-sized.

We hadn't really planned much when we got to Buxton except to go and have a meal somewhere. It seemed very quiet and we were looking round for somewhere to park up and saw a sign for Poole Cavern & Nature walk so decided to take a look. It turned out to be a guided tour of an underground cave and it was absolutely brilliant. We went for a walk through the woods and when we got to the top the views were worth the perilous walk through the mud.

On the way back down I slipped on my bum and got loads of mud on my trousers. We heard a woodpecker, but unfortunately couldn't see it. I was delighted as I have never heard one before except on TV. It seemed really loud too.

Not expecting to go tramping through the forest as we did, neither of us took hiking boots. I cannot drive in trainers at all so I had a change of shoes in the car anyway, but Paul didn't. Our trainers were absolutely caked in mud so Paul took his off and we couldn't really go for a meal with as much mud on us as we had so we had a few nibbles in the car and set off back home.

I am sooooo tired now, but really, really enjoyed today. It was so nice to get out for the day with Paul and he said he was proud of my driving today. I have a feeling we will be going out more often !