Peaks Tweetup

A while ago, Mrs. Wombat (@little_mavis) was musing on Twitter with a number of the Twitterati about where, mathematically, might be the axis of all our locations. The closest she could come up with was “somewhere in the Peak District”. This set cogs a-whirring in the impressive brain of one of our best FWWNMs (friends whom we’ve never met) – the singularly dashing @captain_doodle.

Rather efficiently, he arranged a Peaks Tweetup – a gathering of folk who communicate through Twitter. These events, it seems, usually take place in a pub, but Rich had more grandiose ideas, and eight of us (if you count Ben, who has his own Twitter account @GoodBoyBen) met up in the Derwent Valley for a ramble/hike/tweetup. Rich even produced a magnificent PDF document as a guide and souvenir of the day.

And here we all are, smiling broadly – please note, this was just after some very tasty bacon and sausage butties, and before any walking. Me? Behind the camera, obviously.

Our Captain had promised (hang on, let me make sure I quote this correctly) “Starts with a gentle reservoir-side stroll, then a bit of a steady ascent (nothing rock climby) to the top. Once you’re up there it’s pretty flat the rest of the way, taking in some unusual rock formations, then down”. Sounds fairly easy, yes? Lying git.

After we’d strolled past the rather impressive dam, we needed to climb these steps to even reach the “gentle reservoir-side stroll”. Look how nippily I’m hauling my bulk up those steps. I had to refresh myself with a little @matronmim before proceeding.

 

 

To be fair, the initial stroll was quite gentle, and it was here that we first realised the beauty of this sort of tweetup. The fluidity of the walk meant that conversational groups were constantly changing, so that all of us mixed with all of us, rather than just nattering to the person sitting to our right, as might happen in a pub. Here’s the ladies in action – @shelley279, @vickyperry, @little_mavis and @matronmim.

Vicky had brought a selection of SWEETIES, so we stopped for a Sweetie break. @Domburf helped himself to a Sherbet Dipdab thingy, which lasted him a very long time. At least those bits he didn’t squirt over his companions did.

Starting out again after some foot-repairs with Elastoplast, we finally arrived at the “bit of a steady ascent (nothing rock climby)”. This is it – 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It went on forever, but at the top the views began to be unremittingly magnificent, and our curses at Rich turned gradually into appreciation.

We took plenty of rests, here by a cairn called (apparently) The Nipple. You can see the tit on the right in the red shirt.

We continued along Derwent Edge for what seemed like, and actually were, hours. Occasionally we stopped to laugh at the mincing hairy-backed jogger as he camped past us one way or the other, his orange bumbag gradually easing down his shorts until…. well, ew. Sadly, we were all too busy laughing to take a photo. We did take this photo, though, which is one of my favourites –

Feet beginning to blister, we eventually made our way down, still spotting interesting wildlife such as lizards, hairy caterpillars, weird green bugs and, erm, sheep and stuff.

A short time later, we were in the pub, footsore but happy. It really was a bobby-dazzler of a day, and I was chuffed to discover that these people whom I only knew through their 140 character witterings popping up in my Tweetdeck, were actually the wonderful characters that they had appeared to be online.

So thanks to Shelley, Dom, Vicky, Mary, Mim and particularly Rich for giving me a day to remember and making an old man very happy. Let’s definitely do it again soon. Maybe with a little less walking, or we’ll all end up in the same state Ben was in at the pub:

Oh, and if you want to see more photos of the day, there’s a video here:

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About wombat37

A Yorkshireman in the green hills of Lancashire, UK Not a real wombat, obviously, or typing would become an issue. I do have short legs and a hairy nose, however. Oh, & a distinctive smell.

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