Derbyshire

The Back of Kev and Sue's House

We left Oxford at 9.15am on Wednesday and managed to get in the wrong lane at a roundabout we had been around 4 times before in the preceding days. This meant we had to make a left turn instead of going straight ahead. Unfortunately, this meant we had to drive about 10 miles before we could turn off and head toward the highway.

It only took us about 2 hours to get here to Shirley a little village about 12 miles from Derby. We were amused at one stage when the GPS took us onto the M6 Toll and the large amount of traffic that had been with us before disappeared. There was only one other car on the road. The locals have worked out how to avoid the toll.

It was great to see Sue and Kev again and they had many things planned for us to do while here. We all headed out to Ripley near Denby for afternoon tea. Had fabulous sandwiches with really yummy fillings, scones with clotted cream and cakes. We had to take the cakes home as we were all full. Suffice to say we didn’t need any dinner but we did enjoy the cakes later with a wee dram of Kev’s Glenlivet single malt whisky.

Had a fabulous night’s sleep and woke to the sun shining. On the agenda for today was more exploring of the area. We had an extra passenger, Grace, Kev and Sue’s granddaughter. We drove north passing through Matlock Bath an inland ‘seaside’ resort, built alongside the River Derwent in a steep and beautiful gorge. Sue and Kev then wanted us to see Chatsworth an historic estate north of Bakewell, owned by the Duke of Devonshire. At present it is shrouded in scaffolding as they are doing restoration work so this was a bit disappointing.

Next stop was Eyams a village made famous during the plague in the 1600s because they quarantined themselves so that the disease would not be spread. After a look around and a read of the history we set out for Bakewell. Here we had lunch and finished it off with some Bakewell Pudding. It was very nice. Not a morsel was left in any of our bowls. Explored the town and visited their Whisky Shop where we bought a bottle of Cardhu single malt for €34 around $55 AUD a saving of about $40.

We are going out for dinner tonight to Kev and Sue’s favourite Indian Restaurant in Derby.