I woke up a bit early this morning and so rushed to get ready and go to the railway station to catch the first available train to Sheffield to make sure I'd arrive in plenty of time to catch the first bus to Castleton...in fact I then had twenty minutes to wait at the bus station.
The bus pulled in to Castleton's tiny one stand bus station at nine o'clock; the weather was still quite murky and so I took some photographs in the village to give the mist some time to clear. It was improving all the time but I still couldn't see the tops of the hills, so I decided to delay setting off on my climb up to the summit of Mam Tor by eating my sandwiches in the shelter at the bus station - quite early, but this was my plan.
There was quite a bit of minor flooding today caused by the snowmelt and some of the footpaths I used as I was leaving the village were functioning as fast flowing streams.
Mam Tor, at nearly 1,700 ft above sea level is the highest point of the Great Ridge and remained shrouded in mist most of the day, but at least visibility was good enough for me to be able to climb up there...and the last few yards to the top are easy, whatever the conditions.
When it's slippery, coming down is always a lot more difficult than going up. I took my time getting back down to Castleton; by the early afternoon I was surprised by the number of people now climbing up the mountain. As I was just beyond the Blue John Cavern it was particularly difficult underfoot in places, and these places seemed to coincide with the spots where people were taking their dogs for a walk, either running free or on leads. The dogs were causing a lot of problems; for their owners if kept on a lead, and for everyone else if not. I didn't say anything; there was nothing I could think of to say to the people...there was nothing I could tell than to do, or not to do, so I didn't bother. I needed to concentrate on where I was placing every step anyhow.
A bus wasn't due for about forty minutes when I arrived back down in Castleton and so I had another wander around and took some more photos.
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