We had a laidback day in Buxton, a sleepy town on the west edge of peak district national park. It is a small town known for its spa and obviously had flourished during Victorian time when many people came here for a spa leisure holiday. There are quite many hotels for a relatively small town, and the spa water is still running and we saw a few people waiting in queue to fill up their bottles. And the legendary swimming pool is still there, although looking a bit outdated. I was surprised when someone told me that the Beatles once played at the pavilion gardens in the town centre in the 60s, I guess that was before their fame took off across the Atlantic. We went to see the Opera in the evening, which was in this opera house built in the Victorian period, certainly you can find traces of the past glory there.
I joined the guided walk “Secret Kinder” taking place in the moorland part of the national park. It was a sunny day, a bit hazy, but very windy, especially when you are walking on the ridges of the hills. Several times the wind was strong that I felt I was going to be blown away any minute. There was one difficult up and slightly difficult down during the whole walk, which I enjoyed the most.
Kinder Scout is an interesting area for environmental and some historical reasons. The ranger from National trust elaborated on the stories around its past, and he is a good story teller knowing how to get the audience attention and intrigue them. He told us about the story of George King, a guy started a sect many years ago and according to his sect, the stones could be charged with prayers, and the charged stones can release their energies from within to save the world from disasters. At the end of the story, he said in a joking way, “maybe we should try to ask the charged stones to release the energy to save the world from George Bush.” We all laughed, obviously this was a popular political joke that most people find funny. Some of the area we walked past has massive exposed soil not covered by any grass or trees. We learned from the ranger that this area was swept through by ice sheets during the last ice age five thousands years ago, and the trees got slammed down and decomposed into the soil. The remains we see today in the soil are those trees from ice age and this soil is very poor and it takes long time for grass or any kind of plants to grow back on this soil.
A few letter boxes were found during our walk, I think the two rangers know where they are hidden approximately. I flipped through some pages in a notepad in one of the letter boxes, and one comment said “When is the end of summer? It is 25 degree but I want -5 degree.” Well, there are certainly some people with the opposite minds.
I joined the guided walk “Secret Kinder” taking place in the moorland part of the national park. It was a sunny day, a bit hazy, but very windy, especially when you are walking on the ridges of the hills. Several times the wind was strong that I felt I was going to be blown away any minute. There was one difficult up and slightly difficult down during the whole walk, which I enjoyed the most.
Kinder Scout is an interesting area for environmental and some historical reasons. The ranger from National trust elaborated on the stories around its past, and he is a good story teller knowing how to get the audience attention and intrigue them. He told us about the story of George King, a guy started a sect many years ago and according to his sect, the stones could be charged with prayers, and the charged stones can release their energies from within to save the world from disasters. At the end of the story, he said in a joking way, “maybe we should try to ask the charged stones to release the energy to save the world from George Bush.” We all laughed, obviously this was a popular political joke that most people find funny. Some of the area we walked past has massive exposed soil not covered by any grass or trees. We learned from the ranger that this area was swept through by ice sheets during the last ice age five thousands years ago, and the trees got slammed down and decomposed into the soil. The remains we see today in the soil are those trees from ice age and this soil is very poor and it takes long time for grass or any kind of plants to grow back on this soil.
A few letter boxes were found during our walk, I think the two rangers know where they are hidden approximately. I flipped through some pages in a notepad in one of the letter boxes, and one comment said “When is the end of summer? It is 25 degree but I want -5 degree.” Well, there are certainly some people with the opposite minds.
No comments:
Post a Comment