It was another spectacular Saturday for this month’s edition of the Cake Run! After rather a lot of rain in recent weeks, we were blessed with sunny skies – possibly because all of the Earth’s water is currently locked up in the muddy ground of Derbyshire.
We headed to Bakewell and met at the Inov8 shop, with some minor parking delays allowing a bit of time for a browse and a purchase or two. James was unfortunately waylaid by a puncture en route so we set off without him in the hopes that he would catch up.
After a brief weave through Bakewell, dodging Christmas shoppers and Parkrunners, we headed out of town and steeply up through Manners Wood. A muddy slip and slide through the fields, a horse and a loose dog, and soon we were going back down again, towards Calton Lees.
From here, we followed the river away from Chatsworth, through Beeley and into Rowsley. We had a quick detour to check out the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust reserve there – the idea behind the Wild Peak Rounds is that they visit various DWT reserves across the Peak District.
After leaving Rowsley, we were back uphill again, climbing into the woods before dropping over the hill and down to the river back into Bakewell. We were all ready for cake by this point, so the houses and buildings of Bakewell on the horizon were a welcome sight.
A quick attempt to stamp some of the mud off our shoes, and we were back at the Inov8 shop. Our reward for our efforts was a photo for the board in the shop, a free coffee and the promise of a Wild Peak ale once they’ve been restocked!
James finally caught up to us in Summat Cafe afterwards, where we were tucking into some fantastic cakes. A beautiful 15km route on a surprisingly mild December day!
We’ll be back with our next Cake Run in January – watch out for the date and location!