Headed to unexplored Peak terrain about seven miles from Buxton. Hartington and Hulme End tipping into Staffs. The scenery is stunning, (iphone camera flattens hills and erases immense space, though not sheep and lamb action).

We set off for a loop around Wetton taking in Thor’s Cave. These outings are haunted by memories of a family holiday to this area around 45 years ago. Me old dad having a dip in every river deep enough before wild swimming was a thing, us kids clambering along on a shingle path high up in Dovedale being shouted at to lean into the hillside and not look down, and visiting a cave or two.

Including Thor’s Cave I’m sure. On an Easter holiday Saturday in 2023 an exercise in crowds and queasy shuddering. The cave is high in the hillside above the Manifold Valley and people crowded and queued around the sloppy mud entrance and stood peering over the edge, taking selfies on the peak above. Teeny bunched figures and no safety rail.

“Oi! Get back! Get back it’s dangerous” I wanted to shout as I know Connor would have, back in the day.

Instead we took a right turn from the path ahead to find silence. A peculiar peak feature. After walking some way along a beautiful rabbit and sheep shit carpeted valley, we reached Wetton Mill and came across a retired teacher from Salford carrying a cardboard figure up the hill below us.

“Don’t worry I’m not going through the gate!” she called up. “I’ve just got to take a photo of this.”

“What is it?”

“Flat Stanley.”

“Flat Stanley?”

“My American pen friend, she’s dead now, we wrote to each other for decades and I kept in touch with her daughter. She’s a teacher herself now in Dallas. She asked if I’d be involved in this project. So I stuck a bit of cardboard on the back and take him out to photograph all over. I do a bit of research about where the photo is taken and send it to her. The children love seeing where’s he’s been.”

“Wow, that’s so cool!”

“It is, look on Facebook! There’s 1000s of photos.”

There are.

We walked back to Alstonfield, had a cheeky race uphill with a duck in the distance and came across a dinosaur.

PRACTICALITIES: Avoid weekends or go early/late in the day. Minimal parking at Wetton (misery for residents), some parking at Wetton Mill. Lovely walk (top two photos), footpaths and array of stiles from Alstonfield to Wetton (about 1.5 miles) as an alternative (two community car parks with bar code option for donations). Cash needed for the tea room in Wetton and ice cream van below the cave. Sarnies, cake, a good brew and toilets at the Wetton Mill cafe.