Martha's Marvellous Munchies

It was a beautiful sunny day. So beautiful, in fact, that the small car park in Whatstandwell was filling up even at 10:00 on a Monday morning. Still, there weren't too many people around as I set off along the Cromford Canal. The Derwent Valley Heritage Way runs along the canal towpath for this section, so I knew it would be a lot flatter than my previous walk ! The plan was to head up to Holloway and Lea first, rejoining the canal at Cromford to walk back to Whatstandwell. So, after a short section on the towpath, I turned right to join the road to Holloway. This was where Florence Nightingale grew up. I passed Nightingale Lodge and the well-manicured grounds of Nightingale Park. The house she actually lived in is called Lea Hurst. It was a short but steep climb up to Holloway village. Church Street then ran along the ridge, with glorious views across the countryside. It took me past the village post office, the Methodist Church, the public toilets, and the Anglican Church. Post ...

About the middle of January, I was walking to school one afternoon when it occurred to me that I must have visited quite a few churches on my explorations. I started counting them. But I quickly ran out of fingers, so when I got home I plotted them on Google Maps. Not only was the number much higher than I was expecting, it was also tantalisingly close to one hundred. Only a few dozen to go. So of course, every walk since then has had to include at least one church! Last Monday I visited my hundredth church: St John the Baptist, Dethick. It was a beautiful little 13-century building with an unusual tower - I was glad it had claimed the 100 spot. I haven't been inside every church. Sometimes they were locked; sometimes I was in a hurry and didn't try the door. St Leonard's Church in Alton had bellringers practicing, and I almost interrupted a funeral when I stuck my head through the door of St Mary's, Marston-on-Dove. A few, such as St Oswald's, Ashbourne, and St Wys...

It's been a long time since I fitted that much up and down into an eight-mile walk! 740m of steep climbs and steps. My legs were not very happy with me the next day. Between Matlock and Cromford, the Derwent River runs through a deep valley, with Matlock Bath - a landlocked town which pretends to be a seaside resort - down at the bottom. The ridge of high ground used to run all the way round to Scarthin Rock, cutting off Cromford from the rest of the valley, until somebody blasted a hole through it to build the A6. Matlock Bath: pavilion and amusement park I started in Cromford and climbed over the ridge at Harp Edge, then followed a path along through the woods, with the ground dropping sharply away to my right. There were a few small caves among the trees. At Upperwood someone had thoughtfully provided a bench. I wasn't in need of a rest just yet, though. In fact, I was feeling so bouncy that I went down an entirely unnecessary flight of steps, instead of staying on the reaso...