MATLOCK

I stayed at The Cables at Matlock. It was close to the Heights of Abraham which had cable cars to get up to the top. Too bad I was too busy to go up there. 

Cable Cars

The Cables

Private bathroom

Bedroom

The room was okay. Twin beds joined together – TV and a little fridge.

I had a private bathroom but it was across the hall. A bit of a nuisance in the middle of the night. 

The other two rooms in the house had en-suites.

Breakfast served downstairs each morning. There was homemade muesli and berry compote. You needed to book in the night before for a cooked breakfast. Didn't bother with that. One morning the host, Roger made wholemeal bread. It was just like the one I used to make. I asked him if he made it in a Panasonic bread maker. He did! Best bread maker in New Zealand and England!

Across the road from The Cables was High Tor, a limestone crag about 400 foot high. One day I saw someone climbing it. There is a tiny yellow dot up there.

That looked so dangerous.

Most of my time in Matlock was spent at the archives. It is In the Dales so it was a steep uphill to get to them. About a half hour walk each way. I have had such poor wifi connections on my trip so I was not as prepared as I wanted to be. Too much material and not sure enough of what to concentrate on.

Just about at the archives - the hill is actually quite steep

When I bought the sim card for my phone, I had the girl put it in. Then we hit a snag. Evidently I have McAfee security and it wanted a six digit password. Problem – I don't have one. We thought we should put the NZ sim card back in and see if I had the password filed away there. New problem – I was still locked out by McAfee. This was taking up so much time I said I would try and figure it out later.

When I got back to my room I checked my laptop in case I had a password recorded for McAfee but I only had one with letters in it. I tried all the online help I could but it was very slow and difficult as the internet connection is so weak.

No phone – meant no photos, nothing to read. That would be extremely difficult for me. It also meant no emergency phone when I was driving around the country the next day. I was starting to get rather concerned so I emailed Joella to see if she could check it out at home for me. She did what she could but was about to go out so she asked Petteena to try.

Meanwhile I kept trying the McAfee website and eventually about midnight I found a page where I could un-check the locked box – hey presto! All working! Meanwhile Petteena had obtained a temporary password for me to use.

So grateful I had my phone functioning again. There were a lot I of documents to photograph at Matlock.