Day 0, Walton on Trent

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Andy and I took a lunchtime train to Stafford. It was the earliest we could afford there being about £100 difference in ticket price for a single.

We had planned a quick getaway from Stafford which worked perfectly and were soon cycling through a country park to Pye Green and Lichfield.

We picked up an NCN route here and used some roads which were 'closed' for no apparent reason. Maybe it's to save wear and tear on the tarmac?

Arrived at the AirBnB to see Calum and Alan already cooking, yum.

Day 1, Walton on Trent

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We had a circular route today in the bright, dry and warm weather.

Shopped at Measham and after lunch went to the Furnace Museum at Moira.

It was very busy here with a gala on and bands playing so we couldn't see everything we wanted.

We were a bit early heading back to our AirBnB so we stopped off outside a pub in the sunshine.

The road we need to take has signs saying it's closed but doesn't look closed, strange.

Day 2, Ilam Hall

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Warm and sunny again. We headed north and found some roads were 'closed'. To avoid a detour we checked them out and the only thing obstructing the road was a small number of traffic cones, much safer to cycle past these than to risk an A road I think.

We had Elevenses at Tutbury and lunch in Ashbourne.

We used the map to find the Tissington Trail but were unable to locate it as if was 100m under out feet. We did locate it after going over a big hill to a car park for the trail.

After Fenny Bentley we turned off for Ilam Hall and met Trevor on the road across.

Day 3, Ilam Hall

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Headed up Tissington Trail until we were near Biggin and then cut across to Hartington for lunch at the YHA.

Two hours later after much chatting in the sunshine we headed along overgrown paths to the Manifold Trail.

This was very windy, must have been a narrow gauge railway. There was an ice cream van down here seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

After a very short stretch of A523 we went over the hill past sheep and cattle grids back to Ilam Hall.