Peak District National Park IV - Abor Low Stone Circle & Matlock (29 Dec 09)

Thank God for giving me a thick snow winter this time around. The whole journey from Leeds to Peak District was covered by snow, it makes our sightseeing more exciting!

After leaving Bakewell, we continued our journey to Arbor Low. Peak District is divided into Dark Peak and White Peak and Arbor Low is located at White Peak. It is said that Arbor Low is another version of Stonehenge. 50 large limestone were arranged in an oval shape, however most stones are broken. Archeologists found human bones somewhere near to the centre of the circle. It's believed that Arbor Low was built for religion purposes.

This place is really awesome! The only thing that I don't like about this place is it's so freezingly cold in winter! Strong wind, low temperature, plus slipery walkway, we have to hide our face under the jumper or winter jacket!


Found this lovely place while we were on our way driving to Abor Low.

Haha!! I will remember this place forever! Due to the icy condition, our car failed to go up to the slope. We ended it up by taking the alternative road...

This photo was taken in one of the farm house near Arbor Low. I love this place and I love this photo! It's awesome!

It looks warm isn't it? The fact is... it's freezingly cold! Colder than hiding yourself in the fridge!

Behind me is Gib Hill.

Hubby said I looked like Osama bin Laddin in this picture. What do you think?

That's Arbor Low stone circle!!

After Arbor Low, we went to Matlock for lunch. At first we planned to either take cable car up or hike/walk up to Heights of Abraham. Too bad that the weather was so bad, it was raining like cats and dogs, we were forced to cancel our initial plan and ended up driving back to Leeds earlier. I told hubby we should come back again during the next summer!

Peak District National Park III - Bakewell (29 Dec 09)

We spent a night at Baslow. It was a great stay in Wheatsheaf Hotel. Wheatsheaf is a small hotel with only 10 rooms, but the condition was so much better than what I have imagined. I didn't aspect to pay 40 pounds per night for such a luxury stay.

We leaved the hotel straight after having our authentic English breakfast. The weather was quite bad, the sky was grey, it was definately not a good day for photo shooting. Weather is always the main problem for photo shooting. UK's weather is always unpredictable. 90% of time the sky is either grey, rainny or foggy, it seldom has sunny bright day, even during summer.

We spent all moning walking around a small town called Bakewell. Nothing much to see over there, however we were quite happy to discover 'lamb auction' in this town. I never know that animal could be auctioned as well. Not sure what buyers will do with their lambs, they may slaughter them, keep them or etc.


View of River Wye Park



Hubby was standing on a 13th century bridge at River Wye Park.

In the town...

Back to River Wye Park.

Lamb auction... anyone is interested to buy some?

Peak District National Park II - Castleton (28 Dec 09)

Later in the afternoon, we went to a small town called Castleton. It stands in the middle of Peak District, surrounded by hills. The scenary was absolutely gorgeous, especially with white snow covering the hill top.

Besides the breathtaking scenary, Castleton is also well known for Peveril Castle and Peak Cavern. Peak Cavern is one of the four underground show caves. We were thinking of joining Peak Cavern tour in the first place, unfortunately the last tour of the day ended before we arrived. Due to the bad weather, most of the time evening tour sessions are closed or cancelled during winter time.


Walking through the village and houses to reach Peak Cavern's entrance.
到达Peak Cavern 洞口之前必须经过小镇里的住屋。



Picture taken in front of Peak Cavern. The sloppy walkway was covered with thin layer of snow and ice, it took us sometimes to walk to the cave's entrance.
后面就是Peak Cavern山洞了。本来想到这地底山洞探险，很可惜我们到达时当天最后一班的引队者已经收工。从山脚下走到Peak Cavern的洞口真的得花上很多时间和精力。一路上不但只是斜坡，加上雪成了冰，更是寸步难行！

Stunning right? This photo was taken before reaching Peak Cavern's entrance.

Poor ginger... was trapped outside the house. This poor cat must be shivering in cold...

At the end of the Castleton, there it lies the beautiful snowy hills...

That's the end of the road. Visitors could only travel by light vehicles or by walking if they would like to continue their journey further up.

This place is really beautiful. Too bad I have failed to take any good shoot here. It's always better to be there and see the world's wonders with your own eyes...

People did sky gliding from top of the hills...

It was freezingly cold....

Peak District National Park I - Upper Derwent (28 Dec 09)

University of Leeds was closed from 24 Dec 09 to 3 Jan 2010 for Christmas and New Year holidays, hubby and I took this opportunity to travel a bit north. This time our target is to visit Peak District which was about 1.5 hours drive from Leeds.

Peak District is one of the UK's national park. It stands in the midland of England. It covers a huge area of land, including part of Chesire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Most areas in Peak District are 1,000 feet above the sea level. The highest point of Peak District is at Kinder Scout, which is more than 2,000 feet above sea level. The overall area of PD is about 1,440 square km. This is our first trip to PD, we focuses most in Derbyshire, although most of the time we were unable to tell where were we.

Everything was alright on the first day, although the temperature was very low and there is not enough sun light for photo shooting. Things turned to be really bad on the second day. The sky was grey since morning, plus it was raining non-stop in the afternoon. Iniatialy we wanted to take a cable car travel up to the hill top, but then we ended up leaving Peak District earlier at about 2 something.

Took this when we were at Upper Derwent visitor centre.

Walking around Upper Derwent.

Awesome reflection!

Love the scenary here!

Look at the road on my left, the road is so icy and slippery!

The paranomic view of Upper Derwent. (click to enlarge the picture)

Ladybower Viaduct, perfect reflection!!

Leaving Derwent and moving towards another town near by... at the same time seaching for lunch too!

Just stopped by to take a few photos...