Derbyshire Dales day 3 - just one more trail

The day dawned with a cloudless blue sky and a freezing wind - the coldest day yet.   But it didn't last, before the sun could come out, it clouded over.   As we left the main building for our penthouse apartment in the Coach House, we saw a friend from last night, doing a vigorous dance while having a cigarette outdoors, presumably to keep from freezing solid.

Our final trail today was the Manifold Way, following the route of a small-gauge railway that "starts nowhere and goes to the same place" according to a critic at the time.  It is actually in Staffordshire, and was built to capture farm trade, particularly milk, and take it to via nearby market town of Leek to a waiting world, but only nine miles were built and it was abandoned, having never made a profit.    It started a few miles away from Hartington, leading south down the pretty meandering valley of the Manifold river, part cycle path and part quiet lane.   The surface was all tarmac but not necessarily smooth or well maintained, but the ever changing landscape captivated us while we were not looking out for potholes.  

Manifold Way

Thor's Cave

The trail, and the national park, ended at the nowhere town of Waterhouses, and the only large hill of the day took to the village of Ipstones, where there was a community cafe in the village hall, packed out with locals having their lunch and a natter.   Lovely to see, and great food.

The Dolly Bird Cafe, Ipstones

I promised Roger it was downhill all the way from there, and it was almost true; we were dropping down westwards to the Trent valley.   At Cheddleton we joined the Caldon Canal, which took us in a meandering way right into Stoke.   We were relieved to find it had a good surface all the way.

Kilns in Stoke

After a few stops to take photos, we arrived in Stoke with half an hour to spare before our train, which should be the end of the story, but not quite.   Our train was cancelled due to overhead line trouble.   We went to the ticket office and the person there could not have been more helpful.  He got us bike reservations on the earlier train, organised the platform guard to let us into the 'guards van' space for bikes, and we got the train 15 minutes earlier than planned.  Thank you!

It was the first time Roger and I had toured together although we've been on many day rides.   Roger seemed to put up with me very well, and I'd commend him as an excellent back marker.  He didn't lose anyone in the whole three days.   Thank you Roger for your company, for contributing some of the photos, and for being prepared to brave the unknowns on this trip.

Millennium window at Hartington Hall YH

Hartington Hall YH was a very good base for the trip, but it was quite a hilly ride from Derby station.  If you wanted to do an easier trip, Hartington is a good base for the Tissington Trail or the Manifold Way (you could spend a day doing each of them, out and back), but a better option for doing a day ride on either of the Monsal Trail or the High Peak trail would be Matlock or perhaps Bakewell.  A car would be useful to avoid the climb on the High Peak trail, and also to avoid the descent when returning, which I think would be tricky without excellent brakes and grippy tyres.

Roger's bamboo bike

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