Buoyed by the success of the earlier 2012 trip to the Peak
District, we decided to return 2 years later, but with the addition of a few
friends this time. Each son brought a friend and each friend brought a father,
making 3 men and 4 11 and 12 year old boys for the first few days. We stayed in
Eyam, taking over the family rooms in the coach house adjoining the excellent
Youth Hostel. This was a brilliant decision, we had a 4-bed room, and the other
2 families had a twin room each, with a shared bathroom. It was perfect for
coming home muddy each evening, and waking up after a good nights sleep, at a
phenomenally low price. Eyam itself, famous as the plague village which shut
itself off from the world during the Black Death to protect neighbouring
villages, was a 10 minute stroll across the fields down the hillside. Once
again, the Youth Hostel provided breakfast and packed lunches, the excellent
pubs of Eyam filled us up in the evening.
We stopped at Carsington Water on the way up for an hour of
kayaking. It was the first time that we had all got together, so bonding in
wetsuits while soaking one another with oars as water beaters was a superb
start to the trip. There is something marvellous about water for all ages.
Strangely - everyone seems to be equally good / bad at kayaking, its a kind of
natural action that anyone can pick up. This was exactly what we needed at the
end of a tedious trek up the M1. From there it wasn’t far on to Eyam.
We had made arrangements with the excellent team at Pure
Outdoor to provide activities over the weekend. They were extremely helpful on
the phone in advance with suggestions, so we had high hopes as we arrived at
their outdoor centre early on Saturday morning. After a thorough run
through the options, I was outvoted on my plan to abseil off a railway bridge
as we had originally planned. Instead we would spend the morning rock-climbing
on Stanage Edge, and the afternoon “Weaselling”.
Early adolescence is the stage where not only do boys start
to realise that their fathers are not the majestic sporting heroes they
thought, but they also overtake us in terms of sporting ability. Nowhere is
this more apparent than rock climbing, where progress up a sheer cliff is dependant
entirely on the ratio of strength in your fingers to overall body weight. That
is to say, athletic skinny boys make a better job of it than middle-aged men
with large feet and beer guts. All of the boys felt they were skilled climbers
based on their experience of climbing walls. However a cliff face is a
different matter entirely. Now the purpose of the ropes and the importance of
the safety briefing were very real. But the actual effort involved to pull
yourself up from the thinnest of cracks in the rocks is immense. Its also
immensely satisfying to achieve progressively harder climbs. And from the top,
the views are incredible, and so much more earned than walking round the cliff
as on Trip I. The inevitable bloodied knees and bruised shins just added to the
sense of achievement.
Weaselling didn’t sound like such a fun concept to me, but I
was very wrong here – this was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip, and
the part where there was more laughter than any of the other bits. Essentially
this involves scrambling over and under the enormous rocks that have cascaded
down the side of Higger Tor. Sounds very simple, and it is if you have the
physique of a 12 or 13 year old. However manoeuvring my belly between the
narrower gaps and crevasses proved very challenging. There were a number
of occasions when it seemed the rocks were attempting to give birth to the
adults in our group, although its not normally the baby that makes those
noises. Each time we emerged from another gap, in any direction, we were
greeted by another awesome view of the countryside, and a gang of four giggling
boys.
Day Two was the challenging event 5 hours spent underground,
working our way through the Cave known as the “Giant’s Hole”, with such a range
of physical and technical challenges I sometimes think back and wonder if we
really did it. The route begins very easily where some early 20th
century entrepreneur concreted the floor and blasted any obstacles out of the
way. Then the fun starts. We abseiled down a deep hole through a waterfall into
pitch blackness – thank goodness we had done so much abseiling on the rocks the
day before. We then passed through the “Crabwalk” – half a mile of twisting
through a crevice narrower than me (but again – wider than the boys) culminating
in “The Vice”, which was as easy to get through as it sounds. The route
then goes through a series of steep climbs and descents, some scrambled, some
on ropes, and mostly through very cold water. Eventually we got to the “Giants
Windpipe”, a 20 metre or so stretch where the roof of the cave is about 18
inches from the floor, and its half filled with water. This was quite a
challenging crawl, and our instructor John kindly rewarded us with a very
welcome cup of Hot Vimto at the end of it. From there, it seemed a fairly
straightforward scramble, climb and abseil back to the start. The pub that
night was a very welcome sight!
Next day, our friends left us, and Grandad returned to join
us for a few days walking. Mountain climbing was off the agenda this time,
so we followed the Monsal Trail and Tissington Trail. These form two of the old
railway lines across the peaks which have been restored as foot and cycle
paths. The routes are extraordinary, from the days when no expense was spared
in building viaducts and tunnels to follow a straight line on a map regardless
of the contour lines in between. Some of the tunnels are up to 400 metres long,
but fully lit, which gives them a magically eerie glow. Much easier than
crawling through the Giant’s Windpipe anyway.
This was an ideal adventure trip for boys who old enough to
know that their dad’s aren’t cool, but young enough to get some pleasure from
our company when we’re doing something active and fun. Most of the activities
were things where they could really prove that they were better than us, and
that;s oddly satisfying for all of us. The tricky thing was going to be… how do
we beat that one?
