After waking up from a nice relaxing sleep (who needs sleeping tablets when you have Rioja!!), we decided to have breakfast in our room, now the dilemma, do we get a Derby fry up with extra bacon or a helping of porridge, exotic fruit and yoghurt?? The decision was hard to make but eventually we opted for the latter, with the addition of a croissant (Nisha’s choice!!). Breakfast was lovely, no idea about the croissant as Nisha didn’t even give it a second glance!! (Is this early signs of going healthy ?? 🤣🤣🤣)

We checked out, reloaded our overnight bags and set off for Castleton. We parked up, had a nice chat with tourist information and with their advice, decided to go for a 5 mile hike around Mam Tor. Our hiking backpack was loaded with water, chocolate corn cakes and the most important item, mum’s thepla!!!

Half way up, the cafe pulled us in and offered us a coffee. As it was a warm day, we had to sit at the outdoor picnic table. The thepla’s were unwrapped, Nisha and I took one each, rolled them up and munched away!!! The instant coffee was a mediocre accompaniment!!! The chocolate corn cakes were now a must!! We had to rejuvenate our tastebuds!! Snack completed, on we continued. Nisha’s skill of map reading made sure the correct route was followed.

Now, we’ve all heard about the road to nowhere, well, we found it!!!! What was left of it anyway!!

During our hike, we passed several sheep and their lambs, and every time we looked at them, I swear they looked at Nisha and said “you’re the one who ate my friend”!!

The hike took us just over 2 hours, a nice warm up before Scotland!!! Our next destination is Ramside Hotel in Durham, only 101 miles away. Sat nav programmed, water, mixed nuts and bananas all ready for our drive time snacks!!! On the drive here, Nisha was surfing and came across a cheaper room rate at the hotel. At check-in, Nisha had her sleeves rolled up and ready for some argy bargy with the receptionist to make sure we got the cheaper rate. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Nisha ready for a fight but I think the poor receptionist just crumbled…we got the cheaper rate with a dinner rate included!!!! Conclusion – DON’T MESS WITH NISHA 🤣🤣🤣

So, Nisha has come back from a swim and is now like a live wire!!! Me, well, I’ve been doing this blog (any excuse not to go for a swim 😜😜). Dinner in an hour, more soon…

What a fantastic dinner, the Thai restaurant is so authentic, the chef and sous are both from Thailand and truly know their cuisine!! For starters we had dim sum, prawns and veg, followed by Thai Seafood Karee, which is mixed seafood in turmeric based sauce served with jasmine rice. We had a teetotal day so tonic water was on the cards this evening followed by a latte…oat milk only 😜😜. We’re totally stuffed!!!