Poor old Oscar languished in the garage. These days I find little attraction in riding during the winter, and anyway I need the daily exercise of my three plus miles walk. But I kept his battery charged and ready to go. Then we experienced a spell of warm weather with an occasional dry day – usually warm weather means cloud cover and associated rain. The forecast for Wednesday 25^th was sunny, dry, and unseasonably warm. As a result I planned an outing. Not my usual plan of an early start with an objective around ninety miles each way, but rather a rural outing with the objective about an hour away. The Yondermann Cafe is one of our local biker-friendly places, and there are usually several bikes lined up outside.

I didn’t need to hurry. I avoided much of the congestion, following the Porter valley past Wire Mills Dam, to join Ringinglow Road. Ringinglow Road is long and mostly dead straight. These days it has a fifty mile per hour limit, sadly. In the distant past I rode a bike fast enough to leave the ground over one of the rises. I won’t say how fast that was. Oscar, however, is not capable of such speeds anyway. Fifty is a comfortable cruising speed. Perhaps half a mile uphill, there is a staggered junction, with an octagonal toll-house:

Standing opposite, a pub, the Norfolk Arms. What’s Norfolk got to do with Sheffield? Quite simply, a lot of South Yorkshire was owned by the Duke of Norfolk, hence a number of places named for him. Still does, in fact, though less than before.

Across the road, a view across the valley below to Fulwood and Ranmoor;

Having snapped these pictures, I remounted Oscar and turned down Sheephill road, next to the toll-house. That road, after a series of tight bends, leads to the Hathersage Road, A625. I sped up somewhat. At the top of the rise, there is a view into the Hope Valley, with the Fox House Inn in the foreground, though concealed by trees, and behind, the Longshaw Estate.

Turning right at the chevrons marking the sharp corner leads quickly to an acute left hand bend, the B6521, which runs through the estate, Padley Gorge on the right, down to Grindleford. It’s a pleasant ride down the twisting road to the village, then another climb before the road changes to the B6001 through the Derwent Valley to Calver Sough. There at the junction is a small cluster of businesses, including a cafe, so I turned in there to get my first cup of coffee. I’ll confess here, that a pause for coffee and some sort of snack, is partly to ensure a suitable toilet is available, so over coffee I sit and read to make sure I’m not caught out while riding.