By: Blonde Two

Yesterday Mr Blonde Two and I drove all of the way to Up-North for a birthday visit with Six-Foot-Blonde in Todmordon (pronounced “Tod”).  I am proud to announce that 6FT had asked for new walking boots for his birthday gift.  Proud and more than pleased as this gave us the perfect excuse to potter around yet another outdoor gear shop.

6FT found some Scarpas that were similar to his last pair which we bought for Ten Tors seven years ago.  The last pair had to be ordered especially for his size 12 feet and then carried up onto the moor mid training session by poor old Blonde One (this is how we first met) but apparently people have bigger feet in Up-North and they had some giant boots in stock.

As soon as I arrived in Tod, I knew that, no matter what else we got up to this weekend, I had to buy an Ordnance Survey map of the area.  My map addiction means that, these days, I can’t see a hill without wanting to study it from a walker’s perspective.  As we drove along the valley, I found myself imagining what all of the quarries and steep slopes would look like on the map.  There was an exciting looking monument – even if I didn’t get a chance to visit it on this trip, I would need a map so that I could plan how to get there another time.

Our boot buying trip gave me the perfect excuse.  The map stand was just sitting there waiting for my perusal.  I was gratified to see that out of the three maps out on display one of them was the fabulous OL28 (Dartmoor) – Dartmoor’s influence even extends to Up-North!  I was pleased to note that OL21 (Todmordon) has a North and South sheet (extra map research potential) and whilst the blokes had a Star Wars fest, I spent a lovely evening doing some map-bimbling.

I do have another confession – despite resisting the temptation to buy a laminated copy of OL21, I couldn’t resist sneaking OL1 into the purchase as well.  Well, a girl never knows when she might want to visit the Peak District …