North West England Chapter Coordinator Jane reports in on the story of a planned trip to the Lake District which ended up being a delightful trip into the Peak District…
The planned get together should have taken place in the Lake District, but after contacting the one member who had registered for the event, we found that we only lived just over ten miles away from each other, so it seemed daft for us to both have a two hour journey when we could meet up somewhere locally. An email notifying everyone about the change caught the interest of another member, so two figs, became three!
Just to make it easy, I suggested we meet at my house as it wasn’t far from the start of the route that I’d planned up into the Peak District. It was great to meet up with Jo & Phil in Florence, and Stephanie & Michael (with May the dog) in April. The three Figaros parked in a row, of course caught the attention of some passing neighbours! We had a bit of a shall we, shan’t we discussion about putting the roofs down, as the forecast threatened rain, as did the sky! But we decided to live dangerously and take them off.
It only took us a few minutes to start driving along some green leafy Cheshire lanes. I’m not sure if anyone else has a favourite road, but mine is Blaze Hill (on the way up to Rainow) and the spot when you get to the top of the hill and drop down to a most spectacular view… so of course I had to include it in the run.
The hilly and winding route with an amazing panorama then took us up onto the Cat and Fiddle road, where we stopped at the Peak View Tea Rooms for an early lunch. Luck was on our side as we were able to park our figs in a row and take some cloudy/moody figgy photos. Very often when you drive past the café, the car park is packed out.
After a good chat getting to know each other and enjoying our food, we were back in our Figs taking in more picturesque views, this time we headed towards Wildboarclough and to our next destination Blaze Farm. Again, our timing was perfect, and we were able to park up in a row again.
A homemade ice cream and a walk around the nature trail, was the perfect ending to our trip out and I can say a most enjoyable day was had by all, with plans made for more Figgy outings!
Thanks so much for organising Jane! Enjoy the gallery of photos below:
