Peak Pilgrimage Day 4

I didn't expect to walk any unfamiliar paths today, but the route held a surprise for me close to the end. We had a sunny 17km to walk from Baslow, starting with the ascent to Baslow Edge, and then along Curbar Edge.

The edge becomes wooded towards the north

Despite walking along frequently, the distance between Curbar Gap and the main road always surprises me. The steep descent through Hay Woods was a reward with its bluebells and hints of temperate rainforest. Once in Grindleford, after the obligatory refreshments, the path turned back southwards towards Froggatt.

A variety of trees and a millstone grit wall

The guidebook offers a choice of routes from Baslow, the longer steeper one we took, or a much shorter route between Baslow and Carver. Whichever you take, you miss a church, unless you add a detour onto the edge route. We elected not to do this as the sun was hotter than expected and we didn't want to risk missing our bus home.

Stoney Middleton is a larger village than first appearances suggest and it has a rare octagonal (Wikipedia lists 11 whereas the guide suggests there are only two in England) church, in this case dedicated to St Martin of Tours.

Strong sunlight providing the atmosphere

The final walk was over 'The Cliff' towards Eyam. We've never walked on this ridge even though it is central to the historic story of Eyam as 'The Plague Village'. The boundary stone between Eyam and adjacent Stoney Middleton is near the summit of the ridge and marked the border of the 17th century lockdown. 

After visiting the last church on the route in Eyam we had a wait before the bus was due and found The Miners Arms close to the bus stop.

Summary

Over the 5 days we've recorded walking 73km, including 5km from home to the railway station, with an ascent of around 1700m. The 4 and a bit day schedule has been fairly easy going and due to the well-made paths should be within the reach of many. We were fortunate with the weather in being dry throughout and only briefly rather hot. The weather forecast was for a prolonged dry period beforehand so we took the risk on taking only lightweight waterproofs. This saved a fair bit of weight and volume. In view of the mild weather and lowland nature of the pilgrimage we packed lightly, each using 20 litre rucsacs. Our pack weights were under 5kg and 8kg, mine being the heavier due to a 1litre water bottle (there are many spots to fill-up should it be needed), a camera and various oddments such as USB charger, first aid kit and FRA-style survival bag.  

A new (to me) camera

I've used a few cameras on my runs and walks. I started digital photography with a Nikon Coolpix 2500 which was OK for 2002 but in reality generated rather indifferent images. I upgraded to a Lumix LX5 which was a vast improvement apart from not being quite as smooth in a pocket. Its images still look good to me although the rear dial has become faulty which makes it very difficult to alter parameters. I do like to believe that I can make adjustments better than 'iAuto'. With its telescoping lens it isn't especially dust resistant and I've had it cleaned by the Panasonic agent once. As my running became more serious I bought a waterproof Lumix FT25 which I was initially very happy with. Unfortunately the lens is fogged internally making all images misty. I did treat it as if waterproof and I don't believe it really was! I also tried a generic 4k action camera, it was small but the white balance and hence colour was terrible and the buttons almost unusable in the waterproof case. Ultimately its battery swelled which gave me a good excuse to dispose of it into WEEE.

My old iPhone SE that I use for navigation takes pleasant photographs and I use it in a fairly well sealed case so it ticks a few boxes. In use it doesn't feel to be really taking a photograph and the camera unit can't really be controlled.

The LX5 is a great camera but I couldn't bring myself to pay the nearly £200 quoted for a repair. After a lot of YouTube browsing I've bought a lightly used Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. It is 10 years old so there is a risk that switches are worn but in view of its very low shutter count I hope that is unlikely. This model is nominally weather resistant but perhaps 10 year-old gaskets are perished and the cheaper micro four thirds lenses aren't sealed!

I'm hoping that if I look after it I'll be able to sell it on without much of a financial loss if I don't like it as this model is currently sought after. It is larger than the LX5 in every dimension, especially weight and I haven't found a good way of carrying it yet. All of the switches to appear to work and despite its age it is clearly far more advanced than the LX5, with many, perhaps too many, operations.

There is another problem, that opening the Pandora's box of camera reviews and specifications can lead to GAS.

So far most of my pictures have been in the garden or local woods, trying to understand exposure modes, IBIS and custom set-ups. However, today I did do a real trail run which covered some rights-of-way for my mapping project and took me over the lovely Eyam Moor.

There is something, almost romantic, about derelict buildings and the red hose pipe caught my eye.

My search couldn't find a perfect trail running camera but I'll see how well this one serves me over the coming months. I'll probably keep an eye on other options which include:

• Sony RX100 (no attempt to be weather sealed but pocketable)
• Lumix GM1 (too small to be usable) and its cheaper relatives 
• Fuji X100 (too expensive and unobtainable)
• Insta360 Ace Pro (at heart it's an action camera)
• Lumix LX100 (a new weather sealed version would probably be perfect!)
• IP68 sealed mobile phone (I don't like the style of heavily processed images)