Today, Cheryl and I completed our 2nd walk of our "ITV's Britain's Favourite Walks" challenge. As I'm participating in the Rawlinson Bracket sportive tomorrow, we decided to do a smaller walk today to keep my legs fresh. Neither of us have been up onto Stanton Moor in the White Peaks before, so it granted us the opportunity to explore new teritory.

We left early and got to Birchover around 9am. We put on gloves, hats, and extra layers as it was forecast to be around freezing all day. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind really did make us feel cold at times.

As we walked up the main road through Birchover, we turned right through Barn Farm Campsite, and was greeted by some very friendly alpacas. Continuing through the well kept grounds, we started to climb up onto the moor. It has a slightly different feel to other moors in the area, with less rocky outcrops, but instead far more small quaries that nature had taken over. The other thing that really struck me about the area was the silver birch wood. Beautiful trees, and a real constrast to the typical gorse and rowan. Two thirds around the hour long walk, we were met by the Nine Ladies stone circle; the focus of the walk. We took a few pictures, and a quick explore, and finally returned back to the farm by an easy path.

Once back at the car, we decided to pop into Matlock Bath for a coffee. A stroll up the high street suprised us with the sheer number of fish and chip shops, and cafes, although most were closed for the winter season. We chose f' coffee and managed to steer clear of the freakshakes as our walk really didn't burn that many calories.

All in all, a nice relaxed sunny day. As I'm racing next Sunday as Afan, we'll probably tick off another shorter walk before returning to our typical 12 milers, building up to some of the longer walks in the challenge like the Worcester and Birmingham Canal Walk at 31 miles.