High Peak

Friday and the 165 mile drive to the Peak District. I met Breda by chance on the M1 motorway and we proceeded to travel in convoy. Unfortunately for Breda she had failed to follow the instructions on the show schedule as the post code took you the wrong way where there was no access to the showground so when she took a left turn later on I did not and as a result arrived a good ten minutes before her, I could see her camper van travelling up and back down the lane in the distance until she finally found the correct route! All the pitches were pre allocated, we were at the furthest possible point from the rings but on the edge of the exercise area with sheep grazing on the rolling hills and a short walk to the kissing gate which led out into the fields beyond. In the opposite direction was Bakewell with houses dotted up the hill and the spire of the church dominating the skyline, I was not in time to get my camera when at one point a beautiful rainbow framed the little town. Having lead walked the dogs around the perimeter of the showground we eventually found the first kissing gate which was close to where we had started out from, it is the first time either of us had seen these narrow gates which opened into a narrow space bordered by a boulder each side where there was only just room for a single person to squeeze through, the dogs were slightly confused especially as they were all still on lead, they did eventually learn that it had to be single file only! There were two of these gates at least the dogs were off lead for the second one. The surrounding countryside was stunning bordered by a river, at one point we came across a magnificent old tree which had almost been split in half but was still alive. Brigg managed to adorn himself with his favourite doggy aftershave, namely horse manure, thank God for the river! Once back we found that the final member of our small group, Clare, had arrived after a somewhat longer journey than ours as she had got lost due to the diversion and had ended up in Chesterfield! While she was setting up Breda and I walked into Bakewell which was all of 5 minutes away. Such a delightful old town somewhat spoiled by commercialisation obviously the famous Bakewell tarts and puddings were well catered for but very expensive at £4.50, however we did buy some mini Bakewell tarts as I suppose one could not visit Bakewell without tasting the genuine thing! On our return Clare was ready to walk her dogs so we all joined forces and made for the hills once more with 12 ecstatic dogs. The rain arrived as the night drew nigh and it became really cold, despite that I slept better that night than I had done in years!
Saturday, what a day, bitterly cold with a gale force wind and rain a plenty! As we stood dripping and shivering in the queues for our runs it was generally agreed that we must be mad! Some of the courses were diabolically hard, so much so that clear rounds were not plentiful. Kai did a great jumping round but as usual I did not go to check if he got a place and was therefore astonished to find he had been placed 7th due to so few clear rounds. The grade 3 Agility course was more like a grade 6, few got round it out of the 192 competitors, Brigg just missed his weave entry to get 5 faults, nevertheless he was placed 10th, in another agility class he was blown off the top of the dog walk and fell heavily on his side to gasps from those around the ring, by some miracle he was OK but when we left the ring several people came to check him over, happily he was pronounced 'sound'. Brigg was not the only dog to suffer this problem and as a result there were no Dog Walks in any rings the following day. We did have intermittent glimpses of the sun but as 5 o'clock drew nigh the rain came down in buckets while we waited to do our final runs. Happily it dried up for a while afterwards and the sun even put in an appearance when we managed a dryish walk to the accompaniment of church bells ringing out over the countryside. Clare, who had managed a third place in her grade 2 class was ecstatic at getting her first ever trophy and celebrated by buying a home made lemon drizzle cake from the Greyhound trade stand which she shared with Breda and myself, it was glorious!
After a somewhat wild night Sunday dawned dull and seriously cold, again there were some dastardly courses. Clare once again excelled herself by winning into grade 3 and Breda too did well. Brigg came 9th in Agility and both Brigg and Chart did great Jumping runs, Brigg was just beaten into 4th place and Chart came 7th. Kai did a lovely clear Agility round and Keets worked his little socks off. Roli and Tambi were taken into the exercise area for 'pensioners playtime' with their frisbee. During the lunch hour I dismantled my garden, packed up and had time for a good walk before our next runs which were later in the day so the dogs were very happy.
There is no doubt that the further North you go the more relaxed the shows which is fine except that by late afternoon the Adams Derby had only just started, I had 3 dogs to run in this and Keets had the final running order, with such a long drive ahead of me I sensibly left without completing these runs, as it was despite a good run home it took me three and a quarter hours and I was tired!Once home the caravan motor mover played up and I had great trouble in manipulating it down my drive as it continually wanted to go in one direction, a left handed circle!