Hiking Britain's 10th Best Trail: Relaxed Camping Adventure

So I'm in the little village of Hope in the Derbyshire Peak District. My bag's all packed for a little camping trip I'm going to be doing. One of Britain's top 10 walks. So a few years back Julia Bradby did a TV show called Britain's Top 100 Walks and number 10 on that list was Mamm Tor and that's the route I'm going to be taking today. But before we get to Mamm Tor we've got that small matter of Lowe's Hill to conquer. And between both the hills is one of the best ridges in the Peak District. I was melting down in the village with this windshirt on but it is blowing a gale now. First proper glimpse of Mamm Tor. Looks even better in this weather. Nearly at the top of this one though. There we go. Lowe's Hill, Lowe's Hill, whatever you want to call it. Although if legend is to be believed it's definitely Lowe's Hill. And over there is its counterpart Wynhill. So the legend goes back in the 7th century there was a fierce battle between Edwin of Northumbria and Cynogils I think of Wessex. Cynogils marched his troops up to the top of Wynhill whilst Edwin's soldiers rolled boulders down the hill crushing the Wessex faithful. This is where Wynhill and Lowe's Hill allegedly come from. Although there's no historical evidence to back this up and Wynhill was originally recorded as Withinny Hill or Willow Hill and it's been suggested that Lowe's Hill was probably known as Close Hill which means pigsty or Lowe's Hill meaning And I think Windy Hill and windy as hell hill would be more appropriate. Right we're following the Elevick Road. So the section between Lowe's Hill and Bam Tor is called the Great Ridge. It separates the Hope Valley on the left and the Edale Valley over on the right. And if I don't get blown off along the ridge is Back Tor. Looking really good up here today. Not going too close to the edge there with all this wind. It's the law though you're not allowed to come up here without having a photo on this rock. It's not too far to the next stop. We're just approaching Hollins Cross and this was a really important route between Edale and Hope. So before the church was built down in Edale they used to have to carry coffins over the ridge along this route to the nearby village of Hope. And also there used to be an old cotton mill down in Edale and most of the workers they lived on the other side of the ridge down in Castleton. They used to have to make that journey every day. Wind, rain, snow. Nowadays we just do it for fun. Always make sure to keep stopping and having a look where you've come from. So you can see why Mount Tor made it into the top 10 of walks in Britain. The views from here are breathtaking. Rush Up Edge, Jacob's Ladder, up onto Kinder Scout, Edale down in the bottom there. And then from the other side you've got the view back down the Great Ridge as well as the Hope Valley. Winnett's Pass, look at that over there. But what makes it really great is it's so easy to get up here. There's a car park just 200 yards down here and it's just a little short walk up. You can bring the kids. Maybe if you're not up to big walks this place is ideal. That is unbelievable. I've literally dropped down at 10 yards from the summit. A little bit of shelter from this hill here and the wind's just disappeared. Here we go, back again. I love this stretch of road. It looks like something from a Top Gear challenge. But I've only driven on it a couple of times myself. It's as far back as 1200 BC and it's also the site of two ancient hillforts. One from the Iron Age and one from the Bronze Age making this hillfort site one of the earliest and largest ever uncovered in Britain. I'm only guessing but this looks like where some of the walls might have been. It's nice to be out of that wind for a little bit. It's not the best path but at least it's not windy. Flies, oh no. I'm praying that there's no midges when I'm in Scotland in a week or two. How cute is this? But when you have a stretch, well, I think it would be rude not to. Let's have some of that. Oh yeah, I could easily do full-on Patrick Dickinson, nail this, then have another. I do like my IPAs but when it comes to thirst quencher, you can't beat a cold lager. So I've got this dilemma. I've brought a pot noodle with me. Normally that would make a phenomenal supper but they do a Mam Tor burger in there for, I think it's £15.99 which is yay big. I could have another pint. What would you do? Seems to be doing a decent job. It's charged my power bank up and now it's charging my battery for my camera. I'd do what any man would do. The pot noodle lives another day. However, a totally different story for this burger. Every day is a school day. I've learned that a Mam Tor burger is far superior to a pot noodle. I don't know if things have changed but you used to be able to just turn up here, leave the money in an honesty box. Looks like you need to book in by prior arrangement. Let's quickly try the one at the road. It's not all bad. This one's closer to the pub. There we go, someone answered the doorbell. Just got to pay in the cafe in the morning. 15 notes though. Well there's home sort of for the night. As you saw earlier it's way too windy up on the tops for this little tent so today's trip was more about just getting a bit of practice in. A few miles on the speedometer shall we say. I've spent quite a bit of money on this campsite since it was Mr and Mrs Cooper's a few years back. Got some really nice bell tents. Look at those. They look superb. Plenty of space around them. There's a little dining area as well look. Undercover. Protection from the rain. I bet they cost an arm and a leg though. They've even upgraded all the hard standing pitches as well so they've got a camper van. Perfect now. Electric pitches along the back as well. So that's me set up. I'm not going to talk through all the gear but I will list it all in the description if you want to find out what I've used today. I'm debating another pint. It's not very often I'm in this situation when I'm camping. Could just sit in the tent but they might have Champions League on. Running Rome or Edale in this case. I'm not sure what day they serve them up but you can get pizzas here. Cafe's closed now but I will show you around that in the morning. The birds are in good song. Let's see what they've got on offer at the Nags. Hikers bar. I enjoyed that. Finished 2-2. Headlamp required. Shh. Very quiet. Are you talking to my little tent? It's snug in here. Really enjoyed tonight. It's turned into a bit of a pub crawl although there's only two pubs. Four pints. Proper session isn't it? But you know I've had all the views today and I've done a fabulous walk and I'm camping. I'm not getting beat up by all those winds up there. Sometimes it's nice just to relax a little bit. To have a few more, I'll say comforts. Although I've still got the basic kit. There's a toilet and a boozer about till we dish it out of the way. You don't always need to be up in those hills getting beat up by the wind, rain and everything else that mother nature's got to throw at you. Eadale is a brilliant place to base yourself if you want to head up Ginder Scout. You could do the Mam Tor walk that I did earlier. Jacob's Ladder, Ringing Roger. Eadale Skyline. There's loads of places you can go. Even the start of the Pennine Way is literally 200 yards away from where I'm pitched. I just got told off. There was a lady in the tent, probably about 20-30 yards from me. Mr please can you stop talking? Be quiet please. She's been coughing for the last half an hour but you know, you don't get that when you're wild camping. You don't want to fall out with your neighbours do you? So I nearly didn't make it out on this camp. I've had it planned for ages and Jo was just about to drop me off at the train station and she checked my train times. It turns out there was a rail strike. So if it was just left to me I'd been stranded at a train station waiting for a bus that was a replacement bus service. But Jo kindly dropped me off. There's no trains tomorrow either so it's either bus service or fingers crossed the wife loves me enough to come and fetch me from Eadale. Right I'm gonna head back to the tent. Be as quiet as a mouse and I'll see you in the morning. Morning. Slept alright. Woke up a few times. Definitely cosy in here. You get your pad in, a couple of other bits and bobs and that's about it. Had a little bit of rain, only for about an hour. Bit misty on the tops. Looks like I'm gonna have to make my own. Only ration pack again. Bill's Brew. Sounds American. So I got sent a boatload of ration pack stuff. From Finn, friend of the channel. Cheers Finn. Wonder how windy it would have been up on them tops. There's another one of your nine lives gone. Fuel card's marked and your day will come. There's a little bit of condensation so what I'm gonna do is just drop the inner down and I can get to all this to wipe it. These cloths are brilliant by the way. I think I got it from Home Bargains. It's called a minky cloth. Really really absorbent. Just give that five minutes to air out a bit and then that's all ready to go again tonight. If it was raining now I would just unclip the inner, bag it up separately and then pitch the outer, wipe it down from inside and then re-pitch it at camp tonight. Let's see if I can get a decent coffee and pay for last night's camp. We're in a, right I'm gonna call it quits for this video. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.