First port of call was Matlock Bath and Kostas for 10 o'clock to be met by Cyclops on his Tiger and Daveb on his Blackbird. ( I was on the trusty Panzer.
After a quick coffee we headed out into the Peak District up an empty Via Gella and over into Hartington. Lot of walkers and that about but empty roads. Wandering off the main road from Hartington we wended our way through Longnor over the tops with stunning views and then onto Axe Edge. The last time we came up here on Boxing Day we had visibility down to 50 feet but today the views were stunning. Heading south on the Buxton to Leek road we turned off for Upper Hulme and paid a visit to the Roaches Cafe and Tea Rooms.
Fabulous views here. From there we headed west up onto the moors.
Here its a single track and plenty of walkers/ramblers cars parked on the grass verges. There were a couple of stretches that, on the wider parts of the road near the cafe had marked parking spaces, but further on it was just grass verges.
As we came out of the cafe we noticed 2 "Parking Enforcement Occifers" who looked morose as I proferred a bit of banter. As we rode up the road we could see that all the cars parked on the verges had been ticketed even one car with his back wheels just over the white parking line. Must've been like shooting fish in a barrel for the bastards. What a thing to do on New Years Day of all days. No obstruction by any of the cars, just a fekkin money making exercise!
Circling around the Roaches and moors we got back to the Buxton road crossing it to get back on a beautiful quick moorland road all the way to Warslow. Daveb unperturbed by the "Bird" roads we werent on. Down we dropped to Whetton Mill but it looked busy so carried on up to Whetton where we found a fabulous little cafe in an old vestry hall that an old bloke
we'd met last month had recommended to us. Too right, it was lovely and the cake was to die for. With time marching on and temperatured dropping we headed back towards Matlock through Hartington, but this time Daveb and myself turned off and dropped down to the Bakewell road . Here Dave fekked off towards Matlock and home, me turning left through Bakewell and over the tops to home for 4.00. Just perfect timing and a big thankyou to Mister Gerbin for his heated clothing.
