Osmaston Trail

Yep, I've been out training again!

This time I was accompanied by my dad and we went all the way out to a village called Osmaston, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, to set out on a 5 mile hike.

At least, that was the plan. And for a while it went well. We hiked up and down a few hills, took a walk through a wood and encountered a rather nice lake and water mill. (See pictures.) By the time we'd reached the village of Shirley to the south, we were finding the going easy and pleasant.

Then we hit the sign that nobody wants to see, the one that strikes fear into the heart of every traveller... "Diversion". Well, we took the diversion, stopping only to ask for directions and have lunch, and about 2 miles down the track we realised that we'd been going south-west instead of west-north-west.

Well, we'd reached the road by then, and a local suggested taking the road back to Osmaston. But I was too brave for that and, using my compass seriously for what amounted to the first time, directed us up a public footpath, across an estate and back toward the woods. Ignoring the time that we walked through one field containing protective ewes with young lambs and the next containing humping cows, this was relatively successful. We ended up back on a footpath inside the woods and following a couple of other hikers. Whether they were bothered by our following them or not, I don't know. But at least we were heading north-east now so we couldn't go too far wrong.

As darkness threatened we arrived back at the lake and the water mill, and we knew we weren't far from the car. A bar of chocolate and a small hill later and we had returned. Clearly we missed about two thirds of the route.

But we (or importantly: "I") learned a few things. Firstly, use the compass more and earlier. Secondly, look up what time the sun sets in the evening before heading off. Thirdly, fields that have recently contained cattle are essentially quagmires.

Anyway, despite the mistakes I think I got a few decent pictures out of it!