High Peak Trail Part 3

Sunday was such a beautiful day. We had decided that we were going to walk a further stretch of of The High Peak Trail this time from Middleton Top, through the Hopton Tunnel and on to Harboro Rocks. We managed to park at Middleton Top even though by the time we arrived it was getting very busy and people with huge cars with cycles on the back were struggling to park; luckily our little car slips into the smallest place.

We donned boots and coats and set out on our adventure. This length of the trail was far busier than the stretch down to Cromford and we had to watch out all the time for joggers and cyclists. Query - why don't cycles have bells any more? This walk went past quite a few quarries and the scattered remains of buildings and earth works associated with the old lead mines and lime burning industries. We saw farmsteads nestled in valleys and in the distance the glittering tranquility of Carsington Water. We slowly but surely made our way up to the top of Harborough Rocks - it was quite easy to get up there on well trodden paths - the views were spectacular - although, on the horizon was a strange, thin layer of yellow cloud - I'd never seen anything like this before.

As we came down again Paul was busy taking shots of the coal mine below us - I turned and saw this view which I took with my new camera - I'm quite pleased with it:-