The Making of Heros!

After not being in the Peaks very much in the past month for one very dull reason or another this week I was very lucky to be treated to a day of Adventure and Heroism by my very good friend TheSurlyGent.


The day was to take place in and around the Dark Peak area - somewhere Im not too familiar with.  We were in the hands of a professional organisation (Trust and Truth Adventure) and were booked to indulge in gorge walking and bridge abseiling.

Bridge abseiling I got, but gorge walking I was less sure about - I gathered it involved walking up a stream and involved wellies, so I was thinking water up to mid calf.  This gorge walking also involved a wetsuit and caving overalls, but I remembered the wellies and didnt much change my option...

Anyway, we rocked up at Cheerbrook ready for the off...

The world is not ready for me in a wetsuit, not even with a set of caving overalls over the top of it, so most of the pics of anyone in particular from here on in will be of the Gent.

TheSurlyGent, in pensive mood, models
the caving overalls while standing in Cheerbrook

The route itself literally was straight up gthe course of Cheerbrook.  Underfoot was mainly rock and stones and, as Malc the guide said 'if its looks wet and slippy it IS wet and slippy'.

 Cheerbrook has a startling number of waterfalls, and climbing them is a nice change to try to avoid going bum over teakettle on heavily biofilmed rocks.  Someone needs to go in there with some Milton, thats all Im saying...

Chest deep! And that wasn't the HALF of it!

The grand finale of the trip (which was probably about a mile) was a jump from a 6ft high waterfall into a 6ft deep pool of icy water.  Awesome - and everyone lined up for a second go...


In the summer we'll be going back on our own for a go...Ill be taking my Vibrams which I hope will be grippier than my enormous wellies!  As you can see my camera coped admirably, despite not being rugged enough not to break its battery door...

After Cheerbrook the peaksdwellers were treated to myself, the Gent and a selection of others disrobing, towelling off and getting re-dressed on the side of a fairly busy road.  What has been seen, as they say, cannot be unseen...


STILL, we had another adventure to do, so we hit the road again heading for Millers Dale and an opportunity to throw ourselves off a viaduct.  I've not managed to find out how high this viaduct is, but Id guess about a thousand feet - or about sixty...between those two anyway.

Ill let the pictures speak for me....

View from the bridge....one for Hazel Deane fans there...

The Gent, who is braver than me, prepares to be FIRST

1/2 hr later and still making sure everything
is ABSOLUTELY right....

I jest...he didn't hang around...well, he did
but in an abseiling, heroic way.

Getting near the edge of the arch - head lower than feet otherwise
you'll smack your face on the bridge when you swing under it!

Yes it IS that big...

And that scary!

A random group member shows us how
done.

All in all a fantastic day was had, two more adventures were ticked off, and we have more skills for our CVs!

Many thanks to Malc of Trust and Truth for getting us there and back alive, and to TheSurlyGent for providing the adventure, and being there to share it with me.