Well, I thought the day was going too well when Gail, Owen J Briggs, Carey Toplass, Kevin Brown and myself all arrived at the start point, Bluebell Wood Hospice, with loads of time to spare so we could relax with a cup of coffee and a cake. It was then that I received a call on my mobile from Tim Wherly of the Derby Club, telling me that he was waiting for me - as arranged - at the Proact Stadium. Oops - forgot him.
Andy Ledbetter from Dronfield and David Turner from Kirkby arrived and joined in with the coffee and cakes.
Gail and Carey duly set off to collect him and bring him to Bluebell Wood (whilst the rest of us had coffee and cakes) This week has been Hospices Week and today was Super Hero's day at Bluebell Wood so lots of the staff (apart from Julie !!!!! ) were dressed up in super hero costumes. Oh and one of them was dressed as a six foot tall red squirrel - very worrying.
Well shortly before we were due to set off Gail and Carey arrived back with Tim, so after apologising profusely to him the walkers set off - to tumultuous applause from staff and children - and the hospice dog, George. We got safely to the gates without any problem. Andy by this time was still at the hospice sorting out his facebook entry, so we all duly turned right at the gates. Oops - wrong again - should have turned left. Only walked about a quarter of a mile in the wrong direction - but my fault again.
Anyway after that everything went very well, we picked up a track alongside the Chesterfield canal and walked as far as Killamarsh where we stopped for lunch. The sun had been blessing us with its presence during the morning, but after lunch we saw a fair amount of cloud, but still fairly warm.
We then walked through Staveley and into Chesterfield to the Proact Stadium where we we greeted by Rotarians from Drone Valley, and Chesterfield Scarsdale - thanks to them for that.
In order to cut the mileage down tomorrow we then walked on to the Do-not roundabout car park in Chesterfield where we will start again in the morning for the stretch to Matlock Bath and the Temple Hotel.
My sincere thanks to everyone who took part, including Gail and Carey for driving the support car.
Thanks also to Dennis Power-Neads for doing the very necessary Risk Assessment beforehand.
After a nice soak in the bath I felt much better and more or less ready to go. One or two sore spots on the old feet, but I'm sure we will be fine for the next 20 miles
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