Out & About: April 2019

Sunday 28 April 2019

Shillito Woods, Ancient Crosses and Guide Stoops

Only 3 of us today and my turn to drive, we had a quick discussion where to go and ended up at the car park in Shillito Woods. We crossed the road and followed the track down into the valley turning right. It was a lovely bright morning although it got down to 2 degrees on the drive up. The first section was like scrub land with trees scattered around. We found a little pond and couldn't resist a reflection shot. The track carried on through some Silver Birch woods with a scattering of Bluebells in patches. We got to what looks like an old drovers track and its strangely called Car Road on the map, we crossed the "road" and ventured into Greaves's Piece where we found a newish pond had been excavated. The track took us up to the A621 but we stayed in the field sitting on a huge rock for our breakfast. After our brekki we headed along the A621 until we got to the top of Car Road and went down there past where we had crossed it. We carried on until we came out onto Fox Lane and turned right up the long hill and i was knackered when i got to the top. We went through a gate into the field and found our way to the Fox Lane ancient cross. After a few photos the track lead us back to Shillito Woods and the car. We went into the woods and had a look at the ancient cross then back to the car. While we were there a lady told us about the Adder walks and mentioned where they could be seen so we went to have a look to see if there were any about but Rob said it was probably too cold for them to be basking. Its a little copse of trees and in the middle of it is another Derbyshire Stoop, one that we've seen before.

This is this weeks figure of eight route.

Bluebells scattered everywhere

Car Road

Recently formed pond

Car Road

Daffodil

Bluebells

Rob, Ike

Wood Anemone

Gold Finch

Gorse

Ancient Cross on Fox Lane

Ike, me & Rob

Ancient Cross in Shillito Woods

Guide Stoop

Sunday 21 April 2019

Alsop En Le Dale

Apologies for missing the last couple of weeks but I've been under the weather and not fit enough to go walkabouts. On the mend now and 4 of us today and decided a short easy walk was the order of the day. Geoff wanted to show me a little dale they walked through last week so we set off at 06:00 and had a couple of stops on the road to grab a couple of shots. We parked up in Alsop En Le Dale opposite the church. With the weather forecast being so good i just wore some lightweight clothes but when we arrived at the church it was quite cool and when we went through Parwich the temperature dropped to just 1 degree. We set off from the car down the road and found the footpath which was an old farm track. We just followed the track, passing cattle and sheep with lambs, even an old Lime kiln that was on the dale that Geoff had mentioned. It was a steady climb from there up to the Tissington trail where we turned right and headed for the remnants of Alsop station. Part way along the trail we stopped and had breakfast on a lovely seat. We got to the remnants of the Alsop station then turned off the trail onto a footpath heading downhill back towards the village of Alsop En Le Dale. We could hear a woodpecker in an old tree and stopped for a while to see if we could spot it but unfortunately it was on the other side of the trunk and as we approached it we saw it fly off.We reached the village and went into the church grounds again and just sat and enjoyed the view before getting back into the car. We had a slight detour on the way back and dropped Ike off at his daughters in Brailsford before heading home.