A Grand Day Out

Wednesday 18th September 2008........

......0500 hours. It's may day off. What the hell am I doing getting up this early?

......0600 hours. Convene at Bransholme Police Station to collect one of five colleagues who'll be joining me for a hike around Ladybower Reservoir and district in the Derbyshire Peaks.

...... 0605 hours. AJ delivers the news that 2 of our number have bottled it. Rachel can;t be bothered or some lame excuse, and PK has a lame excuse, literally. He has damaged ligaments in his foot playing football the day before. That leaves four of us. That's okay room to stretch out in the car.

...... 0620 hours. Hessle foreshore. Can't locate our other team members. Turns out they can;t tell the difference between Hessle foreshore and the Humber Bridge Car park. They have no idea whee Hessle foreshore is or how to get there. They are from Driffield and Walkington and don't get out much. We mee them at the Humber Bridge car park.

...... 0630 hours. On the road and only a hlaf hour behind schedule. Dave has brought TomTom Sat Nav which is good, but it has a woman with PMT giving the instructions which is not. She is able to give directions whilst we are on the well signposted motorways which I know well anyway, but gets us lost passing through Sheffield. We forgive her at first, as half of Sheffield appears to be closed off for roadworks, but eventually we realise that she is wanting to visit every shoe shop in the city and giving us directions to get us there. Once we realise she has now directed us back to the fiurst shoe shop we passed we give up and rely on roadsigns, instinct and pot luck.

.......0800 hours. We have survived Sheffield City Centre and despite the attempts of several people in Audis and Mercedees trying to kill us we esape the city and find the A57. One man in a 08 plated Audi, quite obviously a company car waves to thank us after almost sideswiping us, carving across our bumper, causing me a near coronary. I'm begining to wish I'd brought the old Citroen banger and not my decent Zafira. Hull may have some mad drivers, but Sheffiled must be the only city that lets registered blind people drive.

....... 0810 hours. My three passengers are sulking because I missed the left turn into Morrisions where they were hoping to get a cooked breakfast. If I'd been giving more than 3 millimetres/half a nano second notice I might have made the turn. Dave reluctantly admits that there is a cabin at the car park where we might get a bacon sandwhich.

....... 0830 hours. We arrive at the reservoir car park. There is a cafe/snack bar! It is closed. Bugger. We all dib int our packed lunches early as none of us have had breakfast.

........ 0835 hours Best foot forward. The reservoir looks stunning as we set off. The water is flat as a pancake and reflecting the trees beautifully, a shining natural mirror which the photgraphs just don't do justice to.