Hartington Expedition 2025 by Bronwyn (Eagles Patrol Leader - Monday Scout Troop)

It all started on a crisp Saturday morning at the scout hut at around 8am. After a quick bag check and look at the map, we set off on the bus to Bakewell.

When we got there, we started walking into the middle of nowhere. We were surrounded by rolling hills with a few farms here and there, but barely any people. 

As we approached a farm, we were met with Adam, John and Dave who checked we knew where we were going and said that we were doing well for time, then we parted our separate ways. 

As we carried on walking with our heavy rucksacks, we neared Alport where we stopped for a quick snack break overlooking the shallow river, then carried on walking along the river for a while. 

Soon we had arrived at Middleton where we stopped for some lunch.

We were planning to investigate a castle ruin, but unfortunately the castle ruin was blocked off to the public by a stone wall so we couldn't go any further. 

After our brief stop, we carried on in the direction of Hartington through open, sunny countryside and past some large shire horses.

After walking for many hours in the hot sun, we had all begun to run out water, so we were planning to stop at a pub and ask for some water. 

As we arrived at the closed pub, yet again we were met with Adam and John who advised to go to the petrol station for water instead. After we had filled our bottles with water and separated our paths with the leaders, we carried on to Hartington. 

Soon after a long tiring walk we arrived at Hartington Youth Hostel at around 4pm, an hour earlier than expected! 

Once settled, we played  many games of Adams laser tag and stroked the farm cats, and soon it was time for dinner. 

In the kitchen we made simple but delicious pasta, with tomato sauce and sausages and shared brownies and cookies for dessert. 

It went dark so we all went to bed to be prepared for the next day. 

In the morning, we all went to down to get breakfast at 7:30am which the youth hostel provided.

After packing our bags, we set off at 8am out of Hartington and along the Tissington Trail.

 It was cooler than the day before but the views were just as pretty. We soon arrived at Monyash where we waited for our bus to arrive, surrounded by motorbikes. 

Thankfully the bus arrived and we arrived at Bakewell at around 12 noon. We met the leaders and decided to take the next bus at 1pm and to stop for lunch here. So we all sat on the wall by the river and ate sandwiches and fish and chips and even some ice cream! 

At 1pm, we got on the bus and rode all the way back to Totley. Then there was a short walk back to the Scout Hut where our parents were waiting to take us home after a quick debrief with the leaders.