Day 9: Matlock to Chesterfield
Sunday morning - not much of a lie in!! Soon we're packing up, trying to get things into the bags they came out of: surely they should fit...
Not to mention stuffing things into the day packs.
Everyone lent a hand to get the luggage onto the van - Fr David making sure that the morning and evening prayer books got loaded.
Howard, van packer in chief this year, got a ride to the van.
At the van, it looks like the men are letting Jean do all the work.
Then there was time to look on and chat as we gathered for the setting out prayers.
Claire and Garth were leaving this morning, and wanted a group photo to remember us by. For a bigger version, click on the picture (and wait patiently if your link is slow!).
Garth set us on our way with prayer, then it was out of the school and down the hill...
... to the Church of St Giles, to join their Sung Eucharist.
The large church was filled with the regular congregation, a baptism party, and all the pilgrims.
Joan chatted to baby Lewis' parents after the service.
The family then posed for photos by the font.
Bill met up with a relative.
David decided to take a close up picture of Marta's profile (no, we don't know why!); I thought I'd take a picture of David carefully measuring the distance from his camera to the end of Marta's nose; Mike thought it looked ridiculous enough to snap us both; then we were all caught (but by whom I'm not sure: today's photos include offerings from John C, Pat D, Danny, Howard, Stephen, Mike, Bridget and Ant).
After the service we enjoyed a cup of coffee then set out, climbing out of Matlock with a view of Riber Castle on the hill.
We passed a pub (too early in the day) suitably named for our overseas pilgrims who've been having some trouble with English farm gates. Now this is really what they're for...
John, walking his first day, found it starting with a steady climb.
There was an unexpected patch of flowering heather as we crossed this steep hillside - mostly it was wooded or grassy.
As we neared our lunch stop at Ashover we gained this glimpse of the village over the trees - then descended and lost the view.
The back markers take timeout at a drinks stop.
Lunch was at the Old Poets' Corner (formerly known as the Red Lion as Pub Detective Ant soon uncovered).
Claire's son Aidan arrived with his cheeky little brother Joe
We had a long lunchtime enjoying food from the carvery and desserts, but the time came to leave, with backmarker Louise making sure we kept to time.
Front marker Maurice seemed to need a little encouragement and direction to leave the pub, as we shepherded him up the hill. Honestly Maurice, you'll find another pub!
Not that we had far to go - the church of All Saints was just over the road.
We were welcomed (and blessed) by the vicar, who apologised that we'd had to leave the pub a little early in order to complete our prayers before a baptism due at 3pm.
The prayers were led by the support team, with Frances talking about the feeding of the 5,000 and the challenges faced by the team in providing care to the pilgrims (which they do extremely well under difficult circumstances) and John lit the Easter candle as we called out the names of people for whom we wanted prayers to ascend.
There was a tomb (of the parents of someone hung, drawn and quartered for treason) and pilgrims tried to emulate their holy appearances.
After prayers we set off up the hill - Claire was joined by her brother Tony who tagged a lift with Aidan and Joe.
We were also joined today by "founding father" Bill - it was good to see him leading the line of pilgrims once again as we climbed up through the woods.
Danny was happy to be catching passing pilgrims on his camera.
Anne and Tony stopped to admire the view over Chesterfield as explained on the interpretive board.
Stopping to allow the front markers to get ahead, Bill seems engrossed in technology, while the rest were admiring the views.
While we stopped we had a impromptu reflection led by Bill Haynes. Sue had asked him if he had any thoughts to share with the pilgrims, to which he had answered "No". But sitting on the grass and looking at the view he realised that he could not miss the chance to comment on the beauty of God's creation, and (weaving in today's theme of care) our duty to protect this environment.
Sitting on the hillside, many of us recalled the feeding of the 5,000 that Frances had talked of. Pat offered us a tuna roll as an "all-in-one" loaves and fishes, but it was too soon after lunch to see if one roll would feed us all!
Prayers over, we headed down the hill.
... straight into an obstacle course: a steep, slippery descent to an offset, slimey plank bridge, up to a high stile surrounded by thorns and brambles. With a pair of secateurs sensibly carried by Bill H, the vegetative threat was reduced, and pilgrims assisted each other over the physical challenges.
From there it was a steady walk into the outskirts of Chesterfield, and we followed the roads into the town, before cutting round the town centre through a park and backroads. Soon the Church of the Annunciation appeared beyond the hospital - though the entrance proved to be at the far side!
And this is our home for the next 40 hours or so. Chesterfield you have been warned!
(For those interested in the technological side of this diary, this day was a first. I had to return to work after the walk, so images were collected from several pilgrims onto an "image caddy" - a combined memory card reader and hard disk - and then the selection and processing of images was undertaken on a Virgin Cross-Country train from Chesterfield to Birmingham New Street; the words were added on another Virgin XC train heading for Southampton, and the whole lot uploaded in a pocket of 3G connectivity at Reading Station. So from Reading to Winchester I was bored!)