Stanage Edge

I desperately wanted to get out today - I've not walked further than round the supermarket for three weeks as I've been resting my recently repaired knee - and the weather today was going to be perfect winter walking weather. And so it proved.

I selected a route along Stanage Edge, simply because there is access from the car to the edge without any prolonged climb and I really didn't want to work the knee too hard on climbs - I wanted to test it on a long walk first. Long in a relative sense obviously. 8 miles was just about as much as I could risk I thought.

I arrived at the car park to a temperature of -7.5 degrees on the car computer, perfectly still, not a cloud in the sky and the sun just starting to show itself over the horizon. The winter solstice is the perfect time to watch a sunrise for those that don't do early mornings. I love being out early, so this was no chore for me.

My knee held up really well and it had a good test, lots of slippery rocks and only the occasional twinge to report - hopefully I'll get a couple more in before the end of the year now - lets just hope this fantastic weather holds up.

Someone told me that the bowls were commissioned by local landowners as a kind of work programme during a particularly hard time. The bowls hold water for grouse - not really needed, but the hours spent to create them were much needed work for the locals. They were numbered so that men weren't paid for each others work, or paid twice.

It was lovely and cold - just how I like it - I had balaclava and hat on for a while and I wished I'd put my long johns on as well, I lost the feeling in the tops of my thighs for the first hour or two.

The great thing about being so close to the solstice is that I could set the alarm for 06:00 (which is a lie-in for me - in the summer I often have it set for 04:00), have a relaxing breakfast, drive for 85 minutes and still be in time to catch the sunrise - at approx 08:00.