Between Bakewell and Buxton: Biggest Brightest Best Bargain Bookshop in Britain

Sunday July 25th
No action here for ages this morning. I don’t remember them ever sleeping in so late. It must have been all that walking yesterday. I heard them revising their plans. Because this campsite was so remote and had no facilities, seems they thought it would be a good idea to burn their bridges and not come back here for a second night.

Mary had found a pamphlet about a bookstore at Oakmere and wanted to stop off at it on the way to Buxton. Billed as the biggest, brightest and best bargain bookshop in Britain, 95% of the stock is on sale at half price or less. It was enormous and I was not surprised when they returned with a bag of books.

At Buxton it wasn’t easy getting a park in town, there were people and cars everywhere. Found out that the reason for that was the town was in the last day of a three week festival. They finally found a park and managed to scrape enough coins together to get four hours parking. Some very officious parking officers were slapping parking notices on people’s cars. They took at least three photos of each car and a photo of the sign saying a max of 4 hours parking so there would have been no disputing a ticket.

Mary noticed free WiFi at The Old Clubhouse which also had a Sunday roast buffet so they went in there and combined lunch with internet. After an enormous meal they went for a wander through the main part of Buxton which is full of elegant buildings. They inquired about looking through the famous Opera House but it wasn’t possible as they were in between shows. They would have gone to one, but had missed the 10.30 and the 5.00 would have been too late. Apparently it is amazing inside. It was closed for refurbishment when they had been here in 2001, and they were unable to make it the NZ Youth Band concert when Hamish played there in2003. Perhaps next time???

The pavilion and gardens were crowded with people and on further investigation they found there was a classic car rally, ( I can nearly qualify for that) craft fair and a brass band playing in the band stand. The pavilion was Victorian in a large octagonal shape and it was full of arts and crafts. It was a beautiful old building with a stage at one end and had also been restored. Outside they looked at the line up of cars and listened to the band playing Singing in the Rain, but today it was fine but overcast. It was not a top grade band, (Whaley Bridge) but they have heard worse and the people were enjoying listening to a well thought out programme for the occasion.

On the way out there was a man with an old fashioned organ grinder, so Ka Pai had his photo taken with him and Alan gave the man a donation.

They sorted out another campsite at Ashbourne which is in a handy direction for travelling to Walsall tomorrow. The man at the campsite pointed out to Alan that the computer already had them booked into another campsite, but he explained that they had to book two nights there in order to get one and that they wanted something a bit less remote and also with facilities. He unbooked them and booked them into here.