Lost Railways and Bear Caves

Earlier this month, Polar and Grizzly took us on a mini-holiday to the Peak District.  Polar told us that the plan was to do some walks and visit a cave.

'Is it a bear's cave?' I asked her.

'No,' she said.  'Although I expect bears used to use some of the other caves in the Peak District.'

We bears were excited about going to places where there would be caves to explore.  We packed our sock jumpers into our bear bag and soon, we were looking out of the car at crags and gorges we had never seen before.  

Polar and Grizzly stopped for tea and toast at a place called Miller's Dale, where there is a nice café in an old-fashioned station building.  We hoped there would be steam trains but there were no trains at all.  There weren't even any rails!

'This railway line closed a long time ago,' Grizzly explained sadly.  'Now it's a cycleway and footpath between Buxton and Bakewell.  We're going to walk a little way along it but stay in your bear bag to start with, as we have a very high viaduct to walk over.'

Grizzly was right.  The railway crosses high above a road and a river.  We held on tight to our bear bag as Polar carried us across, then went to explore some ruined buildings.

'Is this one of the bear caves?' asked Hanley Bear, when we got to a dark hollow under the hill.

'No bears, this is a limekiln, built by humans,' Polar replied.  'It was used to turn limestone rock into lime for using in industrial processes and for growing crops.  It isn't used now but I wouldn't go in there, as it's all wet and slimy.'

We sniffed the air coming from the limekiln and agreed that it was too damp for bears to live in.

The old railway made a great footpath with wonderful views across the river valley to rolling hills and fields of bright green grass full of woolly sheep and skippy lambs.  There were woods to either side full of wildflowers and birds, except when we got to steep cuttings through the limestone hill.  Grizzly and Polar stopped for a drink of water and let Endon practice his climbing.

'Have you found any bear caves?' I called up to him.

'No, Sonning,' he said.  'But there are ferns and little flowers growing in between the rocks.'

We carried on along the path, walking under railway bridges.  We bears decided to pretend we were trains, making puffing noises and whistling when we went under bridges.  Suddenly, we saw something exciting in front of us.

'It's a bear cave!' cried Endon.

'No it's not,' Hanley Bear argued.  'It's a railway tunnel.'

'And there's a train in it!'  I gasped, seeing a light coming towards us.  'Oh no!'  I cowered down in the bear bag and covered my eyes with my paws, expecting a terrible crash when the train ran out of rails.

'That's a bicycle, Sonning,' said Polar, as the cyclist whizzed by.  The smaller bears laughed and I did feel silly. 

The Tunnel had lights all the way through but turned such a tight curve that you couldn't see the far end until you had walked quite a long way into it.  We didn't walk all the way to the other end, as Polar and Grizzly had other plans for us and we had a good way to walk back to the car.  

On the way, Grizzly pointed out a building in the valley called a 'mill', which was a type of old factory powered by water or steam. 

We knew where we were when we passed the limekilns and crossed back over the big viaduct to the station café.  Then Polar and Grizzly settled us down in the back of the car with some snacks and we set off for the next part of our Peak District adventure.