The Roaches and Dovedale - October 2011 - Part 1

The latest Trek was to an area around Buxton - The Roaches near Leek on Friday the 7th of October and Dovedale on Saturday the 8th.

Our meeting place was a small car park in a hamlet affair called Gradbach. It was through a village called Flash off the A53 out of Buxton. The weather as we arrived was OK, but it didn't look promising for the rest of the day.

However, we set off along the first section travelling south eastwards towards Lud's Church. When we arrived there, we were faced by what looked like a small cave, but it actually turned out to be a series of caverns and cracks in the rocks which were overgrown with ferns and mosses. Something out of Gawain and the Green dragon. Some of our party didn't go in, thinking it was caving and worrying it might be dark and slippy. The majority of us did go in, and spent a few minutes exploring. Matt, on his first ever Trek, disappeared in mud over his boots and ankles. Thank God for gaiters!

When we emerged back into daylight, there was one of the regular debates over which way next. There was lots of pointing, looking at maps, lots of banter and a new addition to the Trek, a GPS. Eventually we decided to back down through Lud's Church to re-join the path we'd just left.

We then started our ascent upwards towards The Roaches. We passed various rocky outcrops on the way and took up various daring poses on the edges. Chris gave us a sneak peek of his part time job, modelling for the Berghaus catalogue!

Unfortunately, the higher we got, the darker and damper it got. Eventually, the rain came as we were probably at the highest spot and kept soaking us through. Lunch was taken quickly whilst we were sheltering behind some of the rocks. Then we carried on walking and dodging showers. The puddles, mud and wet rocks were quite dicey in places.

After passing Doxey Pool, and resisting the urge to go for a dip, we began our descent towards Rockhall and the Whillans Memorial Hut. This is an unusual gothic building named after a local climbing hero.

Turning northwards, we followed a metalled track which took us up again and crossed our path from earlier in the day. The last uphill section was a bit of a 'wall' for some, including me, but everyone made it through. Couldnt believe my eyes when I saw a taxi at the top!

We then headed north through woodland back towards Gradbach and our cars. It was quite wet and slippery through the wood causing us to become strung out in to two groups. Coming up to a fork in the path, the first group of us left an arrow in the track to show which way we'd gone. Unfortunately, a bit further on we thought we might have made the wrong decision, but too late to change! We got to the bottom of the hill, and Chris and myself waited for the second group to catch up. They were quite some time, so I decided to go back and look for them. I passed man and woman who had seen them, and shortly after I came across them.

Ashley had twisted his knee quite badly and was struggling, but he made it as usual. It appears that at one point they had been looking for some 'water' shown on the map, to follow. It turned it out that it wasnt actually water, it was tippex over felt pen which hadn't copied very well!

Once back at the cars, we were off to Buxton to our various B&B's and The Sun Inn for our evening meal.