I did this one. First in quite a while I've done where it rained so much - only had to wait 4 hours for the sun to come out!

I felt for my friend who was doing her first LDWA event. I'd finally persuaded her to get out - she did the 9 mile route and had finished before the sun was out. But I was chuffed that she'd come along despite the weather. The forecast she saw had thunder & lightning - so it could have been worse!

Anyway, lovely route (memories of doing the Edale Skyline fell race in that awful weather came flooding back!). Thanks to all.

well i was one of those who paid on the day, i would have liked to have prepaid having downloaded the form a month earlier, however money is tight i know it was only £8 but for us thats a lot and has to be saved up, saved a £5 and borrowed the rest. What makes me wary about prepaying by post is the experience in the past, i sent a postal order the other day which never arrived and am now left with the hassle of claiming it back from th PO also a cheque i sent for a walk the other year took the organisers over 6 weeks to cash when i realised it had not been cashed and would bounce i informed the organisers but they still went ahead and cashed it costing both them and me money,

having said that it was enjoyable despite the rain and the organisers showed their versatillity by allowing me to have asparagus soup and mushroom soup mixed together, was tempted by the smell of fish 'n' chips in castleton though

It's an open secret that I tend to choose events with one eye on the tea-and-cake potential, either at the checkpoints or at the end or (better still) both. I tend to see all that hiking up big hills as the perfect excuse to indulge!

Today definitely came up to scratch in that respect. The checkpoints were fairly minimalist squash-only affairs (which was made clear in the route description and publicity, so no complaints there). However, the cake count started to climb unexpectedly early, in Hope. Garfield was pining for a cup of coffee, so we stepped into a little art gallery / coffee shop, which also stocked a good range of home-made cakes including caraway seed cake - one of my favourites - so I stomped off down the road from Hope with steadily decreasing quantities of cake in my hand and a big grin (plus crumbs) on my face.

And when we arrived back at HQ, along with the expected cups of tea and bowls of soup (with lots of bread and butter) there was a table at least twelve feet long laden with a wonderful variety of delicious-looking home-made cakes and pies... (We can confirm that the apple pie and the coffee cake tasted as good as they looked as well.)

Thanks to everyone associated with Tideswell MVC for putting on such a well-planned event and providing such a delicious spread at the end. It makes all the mud-plugging and puddle-hopping worthwhile!

[Helen]

The weather forecast was dire - rain all day, mostly heavy. And it did just that, until about 2pm when the sun at last shone on the beautiful Hope valley. Given this forecast, how come only 42 pre-entered this event and yet 100 extras signed-up on the day ! I guess rain is more comfortable than the burning sun?
The rain really hammered down at times, and just drizzled the rest of the time. The route is excellent and the choice of distances - 25,17,13, & 9 - ensured plenty of choice. My only complaint, given that this event is organised by the Tideswell Male Voice Choir, is that no one sang to us - either at the checkpoints, or when we finished. I'd expected "Nessun Dorma" as we were served soup and fabulous cakes. Anyway - a big THANKS to everyone for a grand day out. Now over to Helen for a word about tea and cakes ...