![\"2022-07-14--IMG-4994.JPG-web.png\"](\"\/uploads\/blog\/pictures\/2022-07-14--IMG-4994.JPG-web.png\")
<\/p>\nSadly, a serious accident at the junction of the Strines Road with the A57 at Moscar prevented the Loxley Lads from getting to Doctors Gate so they explored the Derwent Edge area from the first gas station instead, as reported by Andy elsewhere. Our group just got through before the road closure so was able to gratefully enjoy the gentle cooling breeze at Doctors Gate where we delayed our start waiting for the others. <\/p>\n
In true Slow Warts fashion, we managed to temporarily lose the path from the start but, of course, we then deliberately left it anyway, to go over Coldharbour Moor where we came across our evening\u2019s first wild life encounter, a pair of golden plovers. There is a convenient \u201chand rail\u201d to follow in the form of Old Dike that is, if you are going to the bridge over Birchen Orchard Clough which we did to remind us of the couple of times it was used in Club Championships and, for a bonus, we spotted a rather fine dragonfly.<\/p>\n
The descent into Shelf Brook gave us our regular dose of Harmerian terrain, heather covered rocks, tussocks, bracken, etc. though this enjoyment was interrupted by a missed phone call from Tim (H). A return call established that the four Loxley Lads were at a windy Salt Cellar having abandoned any attempts to reach Doctors Gate. We then continued and crossed the Brook for a steep, long (seemingly), grassy climb up the left side of Ashton Clough. This mighty effort was rewarded with a lie down (yes!) to contemplate the opposite side of the valley, and, by the way, to have a breather. Our deliberations there drifted towards the geological and the strata on Kinder north edge and, as Roger remarked, the slumpage in the immediate valley below. Such was our concern for the use or misuse of the English language, that there followed a serious discussion of a) whether it was indeed a word and b) what could it be replaced with? The conclusion was, a) it wasn\u2019t and b) slippage. However, there were at least two of our group of six who agreed slumpage sounded good and had a sort of ring to it so it should be introduced officially to the English language. <\/p>\n
All this was very edifying but we had to press on via another Harmerian encounter, contouring around James Thorn to a small pond. This was the scene of a previous navigational master class when, on a very dark and a very foggy night, the Warts were searching for the pond whilst standing next to a bank of reeds. It took our world champion orienteer to point out to us that we were just about standing in the pond. There was no such problem on this warm and clear evening.<\/p>\n
Whether it was the heat (about 25\u2070) or the steep climb, but we didn\u2019t feel like an exploratory trip to Mausoleum Hill on the northern edge of Yellowslacks, so our next target was Hern Stones. On the way there, a hare and a kestrel were spotted. A previous daylight visit to this area, yielded a total count of 24 hares which, I think, is the highest number of sightings, so far, by any Warts. A further rest was called for at Hern Stones though we didn\u2019t drift into the details of geological features, instead, we considered the many meanings of slip, part of a pottery casting process, a slip of paper, a form of underwear, not that, I don\u2019t think, any of us wore one, a sliding occurrence, etc. <\/p>\n
However, as we left the Stones, all this discussion was trumped by sighting of a pair of short eared owls wheeling around with sunlight highlighting their bronze colouring on one side and the white underwing on the other side. We stood in silence and awe as one of the pair came around towards us not more than about 20m away and then landed about 80m away. We remained transfixed for a minute or two and then started across the moor. We seemed to be accompanied by this pair or another pair as we crossed the Alport Moor, we reckoned on about a dozen sightings and, oh yes, we saw another hare to add to the wildlife count.<\/p>\n
It took us two and a quarter-hours to do about five miles, by no means fast but truly magnificent!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On Hern Stones<\/em><\/p>\n Graham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sadly, a serious accident at the junction of the Strines Road with the A57 at Moscar prevented the Loxley Lads from getting to Doctors Gate so they explored the Derwent Edge area from the first gas station instead, as reported by Andy elsewhere. Our group just got through before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-warts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfr.org.uk\/wp_dpfr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}