Ben and Amanda are over for Chris’s wedding, so what better way to warm ourselves up for the big occasion but to spend a week in the Peak District.  Amanda did a great job and hired us a little barn near Rushup edge in the middle of nowhere. 

We met them in Hathersage and after going for a quick bite to eat in the Outsider shop (we didn’t manage to get out with out buying some new stuff – that shop is never a good idea to go into) we went up to Burbage North to do a spot of climbing and bouldering.  Below are Ben and Amanda reacquainting themselves to Gritstone – this was done with rather a lot of swear words and grunting ( I have to raise my hand and confess I added to the obscenities as well).

The Next day Ben and I went biking whilst the girls relaxed in the sun, I forgot how good the biking is in the peak district.  It was a littel odd having to make sure what we where riding on was legal (in scotland we can ride anywhere and have much better access rights).

It was great riding with Ben again, my old riding buddy and best mate had returned from Oz to once again ride with me and try and better each other on the ups and downs ( neither of us acknowledge this though! )  we returned to the girls grinning ear to ear and then quickly changed to get going back to stanage to go bouldering for the afternoon (after lunch and a couple of cheeky pints).

I forgot how rough gritstone is on the old finger tips and all my finger tips fast turned a nice shade of pink and everything became super sensitive to touch ( washing up that evening was a sore affair!).  Another realisation that the bouldering really isn’t that good up in Scotland near us and we really enjoyed it and wished for better bouldering near to us.

In the evening the girls went out for a bike ride whilst Ben and I cooked for them, when I say Ben and I, I really mean Ben cooked and I sat and drank beer watching him chucking in the odd supportive comment on his spice choice.

Ben and I spent quite a bit of time with the girls explaining the route we had for them on a map and in words for them to follow, when they got back (which for a start was a surprise as we were expecting a phone call to come and pick them up from somewhere lost) but on asking how got on they sheepishly told us that it wasn’t till they were half way round that they realised they had ridden the loop the wrong way around!  The girls claim it was down to bad verbal explanation of the route!

The next day we took it in turns to do a big loop from Hope, up over to Ladybower via “the beast”.  The girls went first, then Ben and I did it.

The Beast is am awesome rock strewn decent that tries at every opportunity to throw you off the bike if you let your concentration slip.  Once at the bottom smiling like a special child, we both recount stories of near death and how awesome we were, we set back off back up and over into the edale valley where we thought a mid ride pint was in order for.

After said pint we had a large road climb – having not realising what a mid ride pint would do to us we both steadily weaved our way up a steep climb wondering when we both become such massive light weights!

We got to the top and rode up Rushup Edge and by the time we had got to the top we had both sobered up again for the amazing decent back to the farm and the girls.

I spent the rest of the evening playing with Baby Ellis who had been a great baby and enjoyed being dragged all over the Peaks with us.

We all agreed it was a great few days and we all thoroughly enjoyed having our love of the peak district rekindled.  Shame it is so far away.  We packed up our stuff and headed East to the Wedding of Chris and Vicky, our excitement levels rising for the big day…