The Damned Village

We listened to the call of Owls during the night and the wind whistling through the trees. Love this wild camping, it's almost as if you're the only ones on the planet completely free from any stress. The temperature dropped to -3 overnight and we decided to switch the gas fire off. Was that wise I hear you ask? The gas was running low and with the fridge and freezer depending on it, the last thing we wanted to do was change the cylinder at some silly hour of the morning. But with our sleeping bags designed for -10 degrees the cold was kept at bay.

Awoke to a beautiful sunrise with snow still surrounding us. After breakfast and, as we were so close to Mam Tor, decided to go climb the hill. Only 517 m (1,696 ft) to the top and looked to be relatively easy. We hadn't reckoned on the snow and ice along the first part of the route. It was lethal! Thankfully this disappeared after about 1/4 mile and then it was the wind we had to contend with. On our backs on the way up (nice 'cos it gave us a helping hand), it was purgatory the way down. Soooo cold with that wind chill and how those Olympians cope over in PyeongChang is beyond me!

Having warmed up with coffee on our return we headed for Eyam Village to see Eyam Hall and Museum. Found somewhere to park and Ian went on the web to see when the Hall opened. Well, would you believe it was closed! Not just for today but NT had handed the Hall back to the owner in December last year. We had the 2017 NT book so was completely ignorant of that fact. So the title of my post 'The Damned Village' could have meant how annoyed we were. But no.... The Damned Village is exactly what it was in 1665-6. Deciding to go and explore the place we found a row of Cottages with small boards telling how the occupants and neighbours had all perished when the plaque entered the village. To read all about how the survivors saved the neighbouring villages in Derbyshire click here It's a fascinating read. We then walked up to the museum and guess what!!!! That was also shut only reopening for the half term break next week!!! We got back to 'The Beast' a little disappointed but also felt we came away a little more knowledgeable about our British history.

Eyam Hall now closed.

The stricken cottages

The Celtic Cross

As we need to empty the loo and get water we found a small camping site on a farm.in Pilsbury. Electrics was also on site so laptops and camera batteries can now be charged. We also have some very noisy neighbours. Not that we mind as how often does one have sheep grazing around ones motorhome!