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I stayed with family from 23rd December until 2nd January and prior to my visit, December in SE England had been hideously dull, if dry. I was hoping for a change in the weather to something more sunny so I could get out on a handful of the many fine hills around Gtr Manchester and maybe the Yorkshire Dales or the Clwydian hills which are not too far away for the short daylight hours of December.
By the 30th December I was still waiting for that break in the weather. I see, two hours of sun in three weeks is the best you can do, is it? Ok then, New Years Eve looks as good as it is going to be weatherwise, so decided to walk in an area I have not visited before. Tegg's Nose country park, about two miles east of Macclesfield on the edge of the Peak District. That should provide some nice views as long as the cloud is above the summits.
- December 2021 (sunshine anomaly relative to 1991-2020 climatology taken from Met Office website), hideously dull.
Parked at Teggs Nose country park car park and started with a quick walk up to the viewpoint at the top of the nose. The view was very extensive, northward to Manchester city center, west to the Clwydian hills, and could make out Jodrell Bank. The far view was hampered with murk so couldn't make out the Runcorn Mersey bridges or Liverpool as the viewpoint indicator claimed, but it was still excellent. A good example of a fine viewpoint that can be reached with little effort.
- View from Tegg's Nose across Macclesfield. Manchester city center was visible on the right but hasn't come out in the photo.
Back at the car park I took a well made path downhill and that ses the scene for the day. Downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill. The scenery was a good mix of forest, valley and water. One of the nicer valleys was heading away from Lamaload reservoir along the Dean valley, which was a surprisingly steep valley for an area which tends to consist of rolling hills. This was the point where I was really feeling it in my legs. I haven't walked 9-10 miles since May and this was a hard 9-10 miles. It didn't help that when I was about a mile from the end, I took a wrong turn and headed at a right angle to where I intended. Instead of reaching the junction with Bull Hill Lane and Buxton New Road, I ended up at a similar looking junction at Brookhouse. I turned left along the road but it didn't look right. The map showed no buildings where I should be but I was walking through a village. It is when I saw Lidgetts Lane I discovered where I had gone wrong, and to get back on track, I picked up a footpath which crossed a field to Bull Hill Lane, and walked up the lane to the road junction I was supposed to aim for. It was then a simple matter of following the Gritstone Trail across yet another lump to the Buxton Old Road and the car park.
My body reacted very badly to that walk later in the day. I had severe fatigue all evening and had to force an evening meal down. Three hours after the evening meal, my digestive system rebelled and it ended up being vomited down the toilet. I don't know whether I picked up a bug somewhere (how, I don't know, I didn't eat anything that was off, and I washed my hands before eating), or whether I had exhausted myself so much my body couldn't manage to fully digest the evening meal.
- Shutlingsloe, the Cheshire Matterhorn (506m). It was formed as a glacier flowed around it whilst the summit stayed above the glacier as a nunatak. The lower part of the hill was smoothed by the glacier whilst the upper part escaped the glacial erosion. At least, according to the information board.
- Macclesfield forest.
- Church on the east side of Macclesfield forest, near Whitehills.
- Lamaload Reservoir. Finally the sun comes out.
- Looking across the Dean valley.