In the rosy glow of a fading memory, Ouzelden was remembered as a place to visit possibly only because of its slightly curious and mysterious name. However, in the cold dark of our night outing there, and as we thrashed through head-high bracken over a rocky and steep hillside, any romantic notion of Ouzelden’s mystery disappeared, in a chorus of mild expletives. Strictly speaking though, our group was at the bottom of Alport Grain having split from the other Slow Warts who were following the planned route across Ouzelden and up Cote Clough. The lure of an immediately slightly easier looking crossing and climb, out of Alport Grain had determined our failure to stick to the planned route so our fight through the tough vegetation was an aptly deserved punishment.
Twelve of us had started from Fairholmes, the road further up the valley to the Ouzelden car park being closed for the removal of diseased trees. We were honoured with new blood (the Slow Warts certainly do need it) fresh from the wild moors of London in the shape of a young Harmer, Hamish, who skipped over our Derbyshire moors with ease, disappointingly for the rest of us except, of course, for the youthful Louis. We were prepared for the delights of Ouzelden by our route through the broken-branch strewn Lockerbrook Heights Wood to open moorland. Whilst navigation was now simply fence following, our familiar sport of tussock hopping was indulged in, down to the fence/wood stream junction in Alport Clough.
Before the split, thanks to Jim
Here is where we parted without any courteous farewells or “see-you-laters” on our separate ways to the moors which are described on the map as pastures, Rowlee and Birchinlee Pastures. This bucolic description evoking contented cows basking in glorious sunshine is, to say the least, slightly misleading as our group tried to figure out, now we were off course, a) where we should go next and b) how we should get there. The lights of the other group were occasionally visible across the hillside, which we assumed to be the Cote Clough area, so plan A was to contour around the edge of upper Ouzelden and meet them as they headed towards the Alport Castles vicinity. To do this, we reverted to more fence following which at times could have involved some large shifts in direction so this temporary plan was abandoned in favour of a more pragmatic solution of just heading in the Alport Towers direction to the edge path without any thought of a social meeting with the others which we could do in the pub later. During the pasture crossing, my curiosity was stirred by the hardly visible holes in the peat so it was important to explore one of them. Disappearing up to my waist wasn’t quite enough for a good view, so a further nudge down facilitated closer examination. As often occurs on Slow Warts’ walks (there’s not too much running), thoughts of existentialism emerged here. Dispelling these, an energetic scramble released me from these thoughts and from the dark peat.
The dark peat examination had given me the bonus of a slightly strained heel which limited any fast progress on the flagstones back to Fairholmes so the race to the car park and therefore the pub was denied me. Instead, a rather lonely slow trot in the strong southerly wind got me to Lockerbrook farm where amazingly, the group was still waiting (patiently) for me, I thought. But no, the group was concerned about Chris, after all he did have the car keys, he’d taken an alternative route to the car park.
Despite all the wanderings, the two-and a-bit groups did surprisingly meet by the time we’d all finished the run. All twelve of us were accounted for. The whole experience needed detailed analysis which was duly carried out in the Yorkshire Bridge Inn together with speculation about the accuracy of Andy’s compass (again) which had prompted Tom to think of buying him a new one. After deciding on next week’s venue, the last before the Club Championships, we declared that the outing, like most others, was memorable. We also corrected any possible errors in our perception of Ouzeleden! Thanks to all.
Graham
Our group track, thanks to Chris
The other group track, thanks to Clive