Some years earlier I was asked to lead this event when Rusty belatedly took ill. On that occasion I collected Rob Tressider en-route, arrived at the Ilam start point in torrential rain and found ourselves the only fools out on such a foul day. This year I collected Jane Tressider, and was pleased to see we made a round dozen, and in much finer conditions….

The departure from Ilam Cross had us progressively gaining height to Dovedale Wood, slithering north along the rim of the dale and then treating the party to mud glissading down to Ilam Rock. Having three new faces in the group I was somewhat surprised to find that they were still polite to me, although Martin Lancaster did make some utterance about me not getting too close to the Dove. An ascent of Hall Dale would see us regain the lost height, take refreshments, and head over to Wetton on kinder ground.

The lunch stop was a mix of those eating on village benches, while others noshing on the Royal Oak’s bench were given some grief for it. A few Oreads were seen to be either in or arriving at the pub, including Dave Wright, Brian & Liz West, and Roger Larkam, the latter who had run from Ilam in about 50 minutes, not bad for a grey-bearded old badger!

The return stint saw us lose a third of the group within the ‘Oak and we made a return on more sympathetic terrain following the general line of the Manifold Valley. The latter section of the jaunt gave us an unexpected treat of seeing a substantially sized flock Starlings building up prior to going into murmuration mode. All in all a good day, let us hope for a new year of less difficulty and good companionship.

Thank you to all who attended it was great to share the day with you.

Peter