Sunday's walk was published as a testing 12-miler with tight time constraints but a complex combination of circumstances led to drastic changes; the leader's Mum was taken into hospital, our spiritual guide Les had to have lunch with his family (son's birthday), Stuart was missing presumed lost, so that just left Nick with some knowledge of the area and he had had no intention of doing the full walk anyway.

So we settled for a gentle if slippery walk from Monyash down through Lathkilldale to Over Hadden where we took refreshments at the lovely Lathkilldale hotel - gorgeous views over the dale, log fire, flagged floor and real ales - not to mention the excellent lunch we had no time for.

Useful information on the history, geology, flora and fauna of the dale can be found at http://www.cressbrook.co.uk/features/lathkill.php

When we left the hotel, Marion gloated that she knew the way back to Bakewell (Nick having got lost twice before)and regrettably proved to be correct, which meant we had more time than expected in the town before the bus came allowing us to buy Bakewell Pudding and further refreshments in The Peacock.

A lovely leisurely day out.

Although there have been no new postings for a while there were several unscheduled walks at the end of 2006 to round off the year.

Among them were a walk from Sutton Lane Ends to Langley and a social evening at the St Dunstan, a lovely stone-flagged pub that will order takeaways for customers - very good by all accounts.

Stuart led an evening walk too, catching the train to Prestbury, then building up our reserves in the Admiral Rodney, another old pub. We then took a torchlight walk through the fields in the Bollin Valley coming to rest at our spiritual home the Waters Green Tavern.

Looking back over the year, all the walks were a great success (many took place before this blog was started) making full use of public transport and bringing custom to resting places along the way.

Perhaps the greatest use of public transport was in July when a walk through the Churnet Valley began with a bus to Leek, a connection to Cheddleton and after a walk through "Little Switzerland" to Froghall a steam train back to Cheddleton and the buses back. This was the largest walk of the year with 21 taking part along with two dogs. It was here that Stuart demonstrated his dog-handling abilties by coaxing a recalcitrant Dusty (seen above) away from the Black Lion with two pork pies he was looking forward to as his lunch. Les too revealed hitherto unknown mobility skills effectively walking on one leg as he used his shoelace to stop Dusty dashing back to the Black Lion. Eventually we all managed to reconvene and take the steam train back to Cheddleton and another look at its wonderful water-driven flint mill. Fortunately we had time to discuss the day's events in Den Engel, Leek's Belgian bar, before catching the bus back to Macclesfield.

Whilst not an unqualified success, the campaign to save the 60 bus route did manage to salvage some services to Langley on Sunday. Sadly a Sunday out in Lyme Park by bus is no longer possible.

Looking forward to 2007 I'm sure there will be more challenges to protect public transport in the area, more exhilarating walks and most of all the charming company of like-minded people.