Our monthly work day started differently as we met in one of Ashbourne's delightful deli and cafe bars for an update from Tom on Sustran's new Earthlight mapping software. The purpose was to get us involved with looking at how the recent independent audit of National Cycle Route had assessed routes within our region. Whilst some other regions seem to be covered by a forest of "blue crosses" to indicate signage issues, ours seems to be only sparsely covered. A great credit to the work done by White Peak rangers in the past. We will need to see precisely what issues were picked up by the auditors, as long as two years ago and ensure that we update the notes with the latest position. We have up to two years to do this, by which time Network Development Plans have to be drawn up and put in place. Tom helped us to understand all the reviews and projects that are taking place presently, although talk of de-activation of 5% of routes and activation of other new projects all made us wonder what the network in our region might look like in 5 years time??
Regional News earlier on in the day had spoken about funding available for the Derwent Valley cycle path and Tom confirmed that this was specifically mentioned in a recent award of £21m to Sustrans for infrastructure improvements.
Updated with information about the software and plans for how we would use it we set off on bikes in broken sunshine to travel out of Ashbourne and south to Etwall. Escaping out of the town was excellently navigated by Catherine, despite having to cycle along the very busy A517. We soon left the traffic and headed up the hill through new housing estates before hitting the very empty country roads of south Derbyshire. This is a very different landscape to the one in the north of our region but certainly one that is ideal for easier, safe cycling.
Passing through Wyaston, Rodsley and Longford we enjoyed the very rural, pastoral landscapes but these feel like very dormitory villages with active life all but totally sucked out of them. The pub in Wyaston was closed today, and so it was lucky we had taken sandwiches for a picnic with us. The cafe in the Tara Buddist Centre would have made an interesting deviation had we listened to Catherine's cries suggesting a detour.
Refreshed by our sandwiches, enjoyed all the more by eating them in the middle of a field under sunny skies, we agreed we could complete the rest of the route to Etwall today, after all. Stops to replace faded NCR 68 signs were few and far between but nonetheless we have certainly left the whole route looking a lot smarter than it was first thing this morning.
Having reached the intersection of routes 54, 549 and 68 just north of Etwall we celebrated having reached the southernmost extremity of our region before turning around and heading back exactly the same way. A most enjoyable day thanks to David & Catherine, Andrew and David S. Thanks to Tom also for coming out and giving us the talk first thing.
