Photography Blog
Photography Blog
THE PEAK DISTRICT SOLO (AND A SLIGHT MISHAP)
08/11/2024
4th November 2024 and Mrs. M has insisted that I have a few days away with my camera so I've booked into the Travelodge at Glossop which is a pleasant town on the edge of The Peak District.
I've planned the route to include 3 locations from the Fotovue Peak District book but must first stop at Donnington Services for the obligatory Greggs breakfast. On leaving the services I take the wrong road and finish up going around Derby to get to my first stop; Cromford Mills, part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage site. After a slight delay to collect a parking permit after the ticket machine malfunctioned I had a good wander around the mill and along the river and canal, taking quite a few images..
Second stop is Lumsdale Falls near the village of Tansley; a bit tricky to find and with limited parking but worth the effort. The final scheduled stop of the day is at Sheldon where the Magpie Mine is an abandoned mine reached by walking across about 3 fields. This is a particularly interesting site although the overcast conditions make it difficult to get any really decent images.
Its then off across the Snake Pass, which in a poor state of repair in places, the road having collapsed into the valley. I arrived at Glossop and checked into the Travelodge before heading out to The Pico Lounge for dinner.
The next day started badly; the Wetherspoons next to the Travelodge had a "technical issue" and wasn't serving breakfast so it was an unscheduled return to the Pico Lounge before setting off back over Snake Pass for the Ladybower and Derwent Reservoirs, I parked up by the Derwent Reservoir and had a good walk round, taking quite a few images. After a coffee and a slice of cake I left the car park but decided to explore the road further round the reservoir. It was a dead end (in more ways than one) as I whilst driving in the ditch to allow a van past on the single track road managed to get small stone stuck somewhere in the braking mechanism of my nearside front wheel....and it made a terrible screeching noise! Using all of my (non-existent) technical expertise I thought that a few emergency stops going both forwards and backwards might free the offending article, which it seemed to do so I pulled over to plan my next destination. Unfortunately on setting off the screeching was back and no amount of "emergency stops" would cure it so I thought I'd put BMW Assist to the test. They immediately knew how to fix the problem, "do some emergency stops". I explained that this technique had already failed so they agreed to send out a technician who arrived after about an hour and took about 10 minutes to solve the problem which was caused by a small pebble. He told me that he'd only once before been called out to a Z4 and it was for exactly the same problem. Unfortunately it was now to late to explore further so I returned to Glossop, walked into town for a couple of pints at the Norfolk Arms, a Joseph Holt pub, and the picked up a sandwich dinner from M&S.
The next day I decided that I'd give a Wetherspoons breakfast a miss and stopped for a quick Greggs before returning home, There are some images in the Peak District Gallery.
I've planned the route to include 3 locations from the Fotovue Peak District book but must first stop at Donnington Services for the obligatory Greggs breakfast. On leaving the services I take the wrong road and finish up going around Derby to get to my first stop; Cromford Mills, part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage site. After a slight delay to collect a parking permit after the ticket machine malfunctioned I had a good wander around the mill and along the river and canal, taking quite a few images..
Second stop is Lumsdale Falls near the village of Tansley; a bit tricky to find and with limited parking but worth the effort. The final scheduled stop of the day is at Sheldon where the Magpie Mine is an abandoned mine reached by walking across about 3 fields. This is a particularly interesting site although the overcast conditions make it difficult to get any really decent images.
Its then off across the Snake Pass, which in a poor state of repair in places, the road having collapsed into the valley. I arrived at Glossop and checked into the Travelodge before heading out to The Pico Lounge for dinner.
The next day started badly; the Wetherspoons next to the Travelodge had a "technical issue" and wasn't serving breakfast so it was an unscheduled return to the Pico Lounge before setting off back over Snake Pass for the Ladybower and Derwent Reservoirs, I parked up by the Derwent Reservoir and had a good walk round, taking quite a few images. After a coffee and a slice of cake I left the car park but decided to explore the road further round the reservoir. It was a dead end (in more ways than one) as I whilst driving in the ditch to allow a van past on the single track road managed to get small stone stuck somewhere in the braking mechanism of my nearside front wheel....and it made a terrible screeching noise! Using all of my (non-existent) technical expertise I thought that a few emergency stops going both forwards and backwards might free the offending article, which it seemed to do so I pulled over to plan my next destination. Unfortunately on setting off the screeching was back and no amount of "emergency stops" would cure it so I thought I'd put BMW Assist to the test. They immediately knew how to fix the problem, "do some emergency stops". I explained that this technique had already failed so they agreed to send out a technician who arrived after about an hour and took about 10 minutes to solve the problem which was caused by a small pebble. He told me that he'd only once before been called out to a Z4 and it was for exactly the same problem. Unfortunately it was now to late to explore further so I returned to Glossop, walked into town for a couple of pints at the Norfolk Arms, a Joseph Holt pub, and the picked up a sandwich dinner from M&S.
The next day I decided that I'd give a Wetherspoons breakfast a miss and stopped for a quick Greggs before returning home, There are some images in the Peak District Gallery.