2005/Peak District This year’s excursion for Andrew’s 31st birthday was to the Peak District, about 2 hours drive north of London. We hired a car and headed there on Saturday. We spent our first half of the day exploring typical English tourist towns. Someone said to us that Matlock, one of the main towns, was like the English seaside without the sea and they were right — it had all the amusements, ice cream stands and game arcades, just no beach!

That night we went to a great hotel called The Bear in Alderwasley. We had some trouble finding it (the town is so small it only has a phone box and a church!) but once we got there we enjoyed some wonderful food and wine. If you’re in the area let us know and we’ll give you directions.

On Sunday we tried caving, which was completely new for both of us. We were guided down two former lead mines and learned a bit about abseiling and squeezing through crevices so tiny you wouldn’t have thought possible. It was a lot of fun and we came back very sore and bruised from all the hard work!