To Duffield from Ambergate and Knaves Cross

When we got to it, this was a lovely spring walk, if not on the route we had planned, on a lovely spring morning. However it didn't start well. We'd slept well at the Derby East Premier Inn, but I had been slightly delayed in my journey to our meeting point at the end of today's walk, back at SK349429, in the car park near St Alkmund's Church, Duffield. I had been delayed by stopping to re-fix the holder which keeps my mobile phone within sight as I drive, so I can make best - and safe - use of Apple Maps for directions, and then I took the wrong exit at the confusing roundabout by the Premier Inn and ended up heading the wrong way along the A52. Having made a similar mistake before, this time I knew I didn't have to go far to a roundabout I could use to turn back, and the rest of my drive was uneventful. I know that Richard can see where I am up to, because we "Share ETA" with each other, but was nevertheless surprised that he wasn't standing outside his car waiting for me. Instead, he was sitting peering at his phone and the Ordnance Survey map.

It turned out that Richard was worried about a road closure right by where we had planned to park at the High Peak Junction Visitor Centre. It looked as if the road was open to the car park, when travelling from the south, as we were doing, so we decided to take the risk. After taking the A6 through Belper and Ambergate, the Maps App directed us by way of a rather minor route but the road was indeed open to the High Peak Junction car park - and closed beyond. Car parking for the day cost a perfectly reasonable £4.80, but it needed cash. Problem; we only had small change! Eventually we realised that we had no way of drumming up the required cash, and drove back to the A6 by a slightly more major route, via Crich, which reminded us of an enjoyable visit to the National Tramway Museum when our children were small. To be useful to us, we needed a place to park that was reasonably close to somewhere we could cross the river and we started by trying the car park at Whatstandwell Station. This was promising, there was a ticket machine with a keypad (for credit card details) and mention of the Ringo app - and it would have cost us the grand total of £2.50 or £2.80 to park. Note the "would have" in the previous sentence; none of the paying mechanisms would work, possibly because there were engineering works so the station and its car park were deemed to be "closed". We were tempted to leave the car without paying but it felt like too much of a risk, so on we drove.

There is a big lay-by next to the road to the east of Shining Cliff Woods, but although there are good routes up to the Midshires Way through the woods, the parking is the wrong side of the river, and if we'd stopped here we'd have needed to walk a mile or so along the main road in order to get across. We went on to Ambergate and - at last - successfully found a place to park, by the side of the road just to the south of the railway bridges, around SK347509. We walked back under the railway bridges and, just after St Ann's Church, we turned left onto Holly Lane. This took us over the River Derwent just below the point at which the River Amber had joined it, which explains the name "Ambergate".

We were now at the edge of Shining Cliff Woods, in a part marked as "The Birches" on the map, but there are routes up through the woods from here to join with the Midshires Way to the north; a possibility for the next leg [and indeed, used on the next leg]. There is also space (at SK346514) for a number of cars to park; it was pretty full today, but earlier in the day and sometime other than Easter weekend, there would probably be space . For today, to reach the Midshires Way heading south we climbed up past the parking then turned left onto Whitewells Road (on the route of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way) and continued to climb. Excellent views opened up to the valley behind and to our left and eventually another valley appeared to our right. We passed fields of sheep and lambs and several farms, At Belper Lane End we turned right and climbed up Gorses to the top of the ridge, and a left turn brought us to the junction known as Knaves Cross and the Midshires Way. There would be space to park at SK329499 and SK328497 and neither of these spaces were taken.

On the Midshires Way at last, we headed due south on what is apparently Longwalls Lane, part an ancient route called The Street, which ran from Derby to Buxton and also part of the Portway, leading on to Alport Hill and beyond. We stopped in Streets Wood for me to change my socks, then the route descended, initially quite gradually but then steeply, past several houses with "Holly" in their name, to Blackbrook. Towards the bottom of the descent, as we approached the A517, running along the bottom of the valley, we said hello to some other people who were climbing towards us, and by the time we turned off the main road again, onto a minor road with a ford then climbing up through a field of sheep to a wood, there were another couple of walkers behind us.

My ankles, knees and hips were rather achy after yesterday's walk, and I was struggling a bit today, especially on ascents and descents. I was somewhat worried by the fact that I knew we would inevitably have to climb again here, but in the end the walking was so enjoyable that I hardly noticed. The sheep-field was pleasant and the walk on a broad track through the wood was delightful. We let the walkers from behind us, who were rather younger than we are, come past, and followed them through Farnah Green and onto a path on the other side of the hamlet. By now there were quite a few people about.

We emerged onto Chevinside, with outstanding views down to Belper. There was a bench here, and close by, loved ones had created a memorial to someone around a tree. A large and rather loud group had stopped at or around the bench, but just after we had passed (and muttered to ourselves about the non-availability of an excellent lunch spot), they moved on, so we returned and ate our lunch while admiring the view. Our onward route was along the top of Chevinside, but there was also a footpath down to Belper, and an elegant Peak and Northern Footpaths Society's footpath sign marked both routes.

The onward route was along North Lane, a tree-lined avenue with is part of the ancient Portway, and in this section busy with walkers and joggers. The walking was easy and I was busy trying to get the perfect photo, and we missed our turning. I don't know whether it is signposted or not; whatever, the Midshires Way was fulfilling one of "Jordans' laws", namely that routes are well signposted when you don't need directing, but the moment you do need a signpost, they are nowhere to be seen. I shouldn't really be making excuses; we're both perfectly capable of reading a map when we pay attention. Fortunately, on this occasion we were not much past the correct turning and Richard led us around an alternative route which didn't take us far out of our way and didn't involve retracing our steps.

We were descending gradually, around the edges of the Chevin Golf Club and eventually this brought us to the outskirts of Duffield. We took a footpath through to the A6 and, most conveniently, there was another bench where we stopped for an apple. We then continued down the main road, not the most exciting of walks, though it did take us past the mound of Duffield Castle and also past a rather cute Easter display of knitted chicks etc. on top of a post box outside the Post Office. Eventually, close to Duffield Hall, which was the HQ of the former Derbyshire Building Society, we cut aross an attractive green towards the railway. In my excitement over this morning's parking difficulty, I have failed to mention that the car park where we had left a car in Duffield was close to another parking area where contractors vehicles were parking to enable work on the line (which was also what had closed Whatsandwell Station) and, back in Duffield, we could see the engineering work in operation on the line. We passed under a bridge and used a pedestrian footbridge to cross the line and we were soon back at the car.