This morning I woke up at 9 am still tired and my back kind of hurt from my bag on it all day yesterday. But I had to check out so couldnt lounge around. I wanted to go straight to the ravenstor yha but their reception closed at 10 am and didn't open again till 5 pm. So the receptionist at the eyam yha was nice enough to call them and tell them I was coming so they could have someone there to take my things in and I would check in later. So I left the yha eyam at 10 am and saw some of the sites around the town. It was really foggy in the hilltops so I rode to the top of eyam edge ( the hill the yha is on) and saw absolutely nothing even several yards off the hilltop. I went to mopessons well, where people left food during the plague. Then I rode through the village and read more about how the plague impacted the people. I went inside st marys church and read the exhibition about the plague and saw some plague related items and learnt about the church itself. On the outside wall was a sundial that told local and international time. As you probably figured out, it wasn't working today!! So after hanging around the village I rode to ravenstor. Didn't get lost and the hills weren't too bad except one so I got there in good time. Arrived at 1:20 pm ish and did 8.11 miles. I was able to check in after all so that was really great. Then I set off for the monsal bike trail. I never found it but I came to tideswell so decided to check out the village. I took a self guided brochure from the tourist info point, then I went to a cafe to have a real lunch for once. Unfortunately it didn't agree with me and made its way out within 20 min :-( well that was a waste of £7! So I then did the tour of the village, started at the cathedral (I thought if a place had a cathedral it was a city!?) And went around to the buildings and up some steep side streets. So that was good. I feel bad though for the teenagers of small villages like this. You would quickly get bored of nothing to do at night, and the nearest city is still pretty far away! I could neverrrr live somewhere like that year round, no matter how nice the scenery. And not to mention climbing those hills every day! For a small village with all one lane roads, it sure had a lot of cars driving through!! So then I went to a small gallery and saw some real nice landscape paintings, but my god £950!? I'll never ever pay that much when I decorate my house! Then on my way back to the yha I took a trail that ran parallel to the main road so I wouldn't get lost. I went off trail a bit and checked out a quarry. There was cow shit everywhere!! No doubt I added more to the bottom of my shoes. So I went back to the junction in the trail and rode along. It's near 4:30 now so it will be getting pitch black real soon. I rode along a stream and then along the river wye. I was the only one on the path except when I saw two ladies walking and I scared them to death when I rode past! The main road diverted away from this path but I kept riding on anyway. I came to a lake with the cliffs overhanging it on both sides, and trees running all up the slope. I wish I had a good camera!! It esp looked nice in the moonlight and fog. So I soon came to the end of the trail and onto a road but I didn't know which way to turn. To the left was up a hill and to the right was level. So I went the level way until I saw a road sign. Of course I needed to go the other way! So up the hill I climbed. All while I was biking along the river looking up at the cliffs I was thinking sheesh that's high, wouldn't want to bike up there! But of course I had to- and then some! I came to a road sign that pointed to a footpath to the millers dales, where I needed to be, so I thought that would kill some time cause it would be more direct. But then I came to a gate where you had to hop over these pieces of wood and I knew they were there to prevent bikers so I turned around and went back up the path to continue along the road. But unfortunately at this point I had broken my head light bracket and it fell off! I didn't have my emergency headlamp with me so I rode the rest of the way holding the light!! So now I'm down to 1 tail light ( on my first day in coventry mikes dads light fell out of my pocket and down into a sewer), a broken headlight bracket and a headlamp! So anyway, I found my way back to the yha. It was kind of cool riding at night. A little nerve racking being up on the cliffs, but I heard some cool animal calls and May have seen a bat. My total distance for the whole day is 20.97 miles, avg 7. So now I am in the dining room, the only place with phone service. The cook is singing along to his REM cd and a school group is eating. I really want their leftovers. I had an egg mayo sandwich from the coop and I couldn't tell if that cow shit smell was from me or the egg. Well tomorrow I'm off to find that monsal trail and possibly do a walking loop trail in litton, a nearby mill village. I want to keep local again cause I always bypass nice places when I go from one place to the next, and I don't want to do that here. So its a real early night for me to take advantage of as much daylight as I can!
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