Members: Lorna Marsland, Linda Crossley, Anne Sanderson, Alan (Liverpool) Jones, Peter Walker, Frank and Margaret Williams, Roger Dyke, Iain McCallum, Brian Taylor.

Guests: Kamnek*.

I picked up Kamnek at Macclesfield railway station; driving on the Cat and Fiddle road from Macclesfield to Lathkill Dale encountered fog, ice and frozen slush so on arrival at meeting place car park was pleasantly surprised to find a good turnout of 9 hardy members getting ready for the off!

The walk did not contain any real mountaineering flavour but nevertheless proved to be very scenically varied. The first part of the walk was across open fields carefully avoiding cow pats and some frisky horses. The middle section of the walk consisted of the descent down Lathkill Dale and then it was along the river Bradford as far as Youlgreave. The majority of the group stopped for a drink at the inn in Youlgreave, the remainder skipped the pub stop and made their way back to their cars via my recommended route.

The final section of the walk took us further up the river Bradford and then a steep ascent through woodland took us on to open fields before returning to the cars. During the walk we had been fairly lucky with the weather only encountering the odd heavy shower but on leaving the car park to go home the heavens opened.

* Kamnek was a keen guest who had only come over to the UK from Mumbai in India six weeks previously. He was only used to tropical conditions and had never seen snow fall. Given the mixed weather and underfoot conditions my pre meet advice to him not to turn up in shorts and trainers proved to be sound advice!

Meet at pay and display car park Grid Ref 194 645 OS Map Sheet 119 for a 10am start. (As an alternative you can park at layby on right of road from Parsley Hay near fork in road, 50 - 100 yards before pay and display car park).

Walk is approx 10 miles, initially we cross fields in a north westerly direction towards Calling Low. From there we cross Cales Dale before dropping to the head of Lathkill Dale. It is then an interesting descent down the dale beside the River Lathkill (on the left hand side). If you had been here in the early summer you would have seen plenty of spring flowers! Time permitting we will make a slight detour for a pint at the Inn at Over Haddon. We then rejoin the river down as far as Alport and then we turn up the River Bradford. Initially we are the south side of the river but we then cross over to the north side as we pass Youlgreave, it's then back over a bridge to the south side before crossing back over the river, downstream of Middleton, for a return to the cars.