Kevin and Joannie on tour

  Though there's plenty to do at home, we decided that we would bag another Ethel today.  As we were dropping off some spare parts for Kevin's mother in the morning, we chose a hill not too far away - Bolehill, just above Wirksworth.   Things didn't get off to the best of starts when we got down to J28 and realised we'd forgot said Dyson part and had to return home. We've not been great at exploring Derbyshire since we moved to Whaley in 2002.  There's always something else to do, but what with Covid 19 affectively grounding us, it's great to have a new mission. So off to the village of Bolehill we went. We tried to park at the Black Rocks car park but it was full so we left our car in the village.  The first part of the walk was on the Cromford and High Peak former railway.  There's an incline between Middleton Top and the Cromford Canal.  The trucks were wound uphill by an engine before setting off to Buxton and beyond.  We thought that thi...

So sometime on New Year's Eve, Kevin and I decided that it would be a bit of a challenge to do the Ethels.  The Ethels are 95 Peak District hill tops over 400m above sea level, plus some other significant hills.  The challenge was created last year by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, in honour of Ethel Haythornthwaite, a countryside pioneer who was instrumental in the setting up of the UK's first National Park, the Peak District.  You can find out more about her and the challenge here: Walking the 'Ethels' - CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire (cprepdsy.org.uk) It's been a bit of a thing with us that since we married in 2002, we've never done much walking in the Peak District.  As we live in a beautiful place already, we've tended to go for a walk near our home, usually ending in a local pub.  But, as Kevin is CEV, we haven't done pubs (or anywhere else) since the pandemic began! Joan's sister, Christine, first let us know about t...

Who would have thought when we left St Kitts in December 2021that that would be our last holiday until now. Whilst some people have had holidays during times of Covid, because Kevin is CEV, we have stayed home.  Planned holidays to Ecuador and the Galapagos as well as Kamchatka have never happened.  We have stayed at home. With the prospect of the virus being with us for a long time, and realising staying at home means you really don't have a break, we got the caravan serviced.  It's a 2 berth Lunar Ariva (2010) which was hifted to us by Kevin's mother.  We've used it for a few short breaks before to Coniston, Southport and Cheddar. We'd already got the Bank Holiday week booked off, but the cattery which we always use was fully booked.  So we resigned ourselves to not going away and settled down for a week at home in the garden. However on Sunday we awoke to find a message from the cattery to say they had had cancellations and could accommodate from Monday. Give...