Day 7: Glossop and ladybower Dam

[Dollymixture]

7 days since we left Bristol … it feels like we have been travelling for much longer!

Today we woke up in the Travelodge in Glossop and all felt quite tired, but luckily we had an easy day planned.

We had a lazy morning and ended up going out about 11am. We had a look around Glossop - it’s a nice town with a marks and spencer food hall, Lidl, Wetherspoons, subway and greggs all within a couple of minutes walk of the hotel - what more could you want?! 😂

We decided on a picnic at the Ladybower reservoir, so picked up some goodies from the Lidl bakery and some cold drinks. The heatwave is still going strong at the moment - I think we reached 28 today!

It was a half hour drive along the Snake Pass to get there - a lovely stretch of road that bends and winds with wonderful views around each turning.
We parked up at the Upper Derwent Visitor centre and there was plenty of parking available, and also toilets, a cafe and picnic areas.

We’d skipped breakfast, so decided to make use of the picnic area and devour our food straight away. The boys were grumbling over lack of coffee, so I got them a strong coffee each from the cafe, and they were also kind enough to give us some plastic forks for our pasta pots.

After our picnic we headed off to to the red walk - this is the easiest of the walks and is 1.5km… more than enough for us in the heat!

The walk is signposted with little red arrows every so often, so Lila enjoyed being navigator and running ahead to see where we needed to go.

It’s a lovely walk that takes you around the edge of Ladybower, then into the woods for a climb up a hill to the Derwent Dam.

It was at this point I noticed it had gone really humid - but didn’t think much of it as the weather forecast was for a dry sunny day.
We loved all the little wooden benches at points to rest as you walk up the hill, with lovely quotes engraved on them. This one was our favourite;

The walk was mostly in the woods which we appreciated due to the heat - and the kids also liked that the different trees were signposted.

We spotted the Dam through the trees as we reached the top of the climb, and the views were wonderful.

We spotted this tribute to a very loyal dog - which touched us all, especially Lila, who is animal mad and very sensitive. Aren’t dogs wonderful ❤️

As we were enjoying the views, we started to feel a few fat spots of rain… the next second it absolutely pelted down…. torrential and out of nowhere, not unlike the storms in Florida!
We were totally unprepared but couldn’t help enjoying it as we got completely soaked.. it was so refreshing!
Lila loves the rain and did an actual jump for joy 😂

We took a soggy walk back down to the visitor centre - Koolie had gone ahead. By the time we had caught up, he realised he had lost the car keys! 😳 It was still pelting it down with rain, and there was very little shelter so we were just stood in the storm wondering what on earth to do!
We asked in the visitor centre but no one had handed any in… we searched pockets and bags and the picnic spot - nothing. Completely soaked through like we had jumped in the reservoir by this point 😂 Koolie decided to do the walk again to retrace our steps.
We had to wait in this:

Eventually he returned WITH THE KEYS! He had put them down at a point we had stopped on the walk, and they were in the grass! We were so lucky to find them and to get them back so easily - honestly only we could manage to do things like this!

Anyway, we were totally soaked through so decided to head back to the hotel to shower and change - within the minutes the sun was out again and the temperature had gone back up to 28! We all had a laugh about our eventful walk … made some interesting memories for sure.

Later in the evening we popped out for dinner at The Smithy Fold - conveniently located right next to the Travelodge. The food was great and nice quick service.

As we were having dessert - again out of nowhere the weather went from sunny to storming in seconds. The poor people eating outside had to make a dash for cover. We had half an hour of torrential downpour, and then it was sunny and hot again. Who needs Florida?! 😆

A bit of relaxing in the evening and packing up as much as possible because tomorrow we are off to Blackpool and then onto the Lake District. We are staying in Haven, so probably will have no signal or WiFi, so may be a few days before my next report.

[mrsdjh]

Glad you found the car keys! Other than that sounds like a nice relaxing day - it’s great that even the rain didn’t get the kids down. Enjoy Blackpool - hope the weather stays good for the rest of your trip.

[Mexy02]

My favourite place and luckily on our doorstep , glad you had a great day despite the downpour x

[P&S]

Another lovely day Glossop area is nice

We are quite near and had torrential rain her last night very welcome and needed

[Dollymixture]

Thank you it was nice to take things a bit slower and very relaxing apart from the lost car keys haha!

Originally Posted by mrsdjh

Glad you found the car keys! Other than that sounds like a nice relaxing day - it’s great that even the rain didn’t get the kids down. Enjoy Blackpool - hope the weather stays good for the rest of your trip.

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[Dollymixture]

How lucky you are to live in the area, so many beautiful
Places in all directions

Originally Posted by P&S

Another lovely day Glossop area is nice

We are quite near and had torrential rain her last night very welcome and needed

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[Dollymixture]

Ohh I would love to live in this area, it’s just stunning and so many places to visit

Originally Posted by Mexy02

My favourite place and luckily on our doorstep , glad you had a great day despite the downpour x

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[Sparksy72]

The weather has been so strange but there is nothing like a good storm to clear the air! So pleased you found the keys too! Another great day and the dam looks awesome!

[cartoonp]

Pleased you found the keys.

[margyloveswdw]

Wow, how lucky that you found the keys!

I must admit that despite having lived in Glossop for the best part of 30 years (and only living a 30 minute drive away now) I have only been to the dam a couple of times and definitely not for 20 years. Sometimes is easy to forget to appreciate what’s on your doorstep.

Glossop does have a somewhat unique weather system because of its location 🤣