Snow adventure

On Tuesday last week any self-congratulatory tendencies on my part for venturing out in the snow were put to shame by a gentleman I met while waiting for the bus into town.

White haired & well past retirement age he told of how he had just walked from the Cat & Fiddle, on a day when, although the sky was clear & the sun poked through occasionally, the snow still lay thick & frozen as soon as you got away from gritted roads.

Having rejected two of the more challenging routes – one because there were no footprints visible anywhere near the track & the other because he decided the glaring whiteness made it impossible to distinguish between what were merely snow-covered natural hummocks and dangerously deep drifts, he settled for the relatively safe & travelled tracks alongside the reservoirs. It had taken him just over three hours to cover a distance of about 5 miles, (on the level, as the crow flies) & felt it a job well done in overcoming the recent excesses.

Furthermore, he said, he intended to take the bus only as far as Disley, then, after a cup of tea & a sandwich, walk the remaining three miles home through Lyme Park.

He carried neither back pack nor stick – useless in deep snow he claimed - though he clearly knew the ground well & carried a satnav. What fascinated me - & made me deeply envious – was that, although well-booted & jacketed, he wore no gloves, & yet his hands looked rosy & warm.

Link
Derbyshire webcams snow watch