CASTLETON

_{THURSDAY 17TH}

_{Today is has been much nicer that yesterday when in rained constantly all} day and we really just spent the day reading only braving the weather to go out and have a long lunch at a local pub. 

 

We made the most of the day today and started doing an underground canal boat ride through an old tunnel that was dug in the 18^th century when the lead miners needed access to underground mines.  We were 200 meters underground and finished in a big old mine.  The tunnel was very low and we had to wear hard hats and were glad of them if you straightened up out of the crouching position whilst in the boat.    We then drove up through the Derwent Valley passed two reservoirs or dams.  This is where the Dam Busters trained before they dropped the bomb over a dam in Germany during WW2.  I was interested in this because one of those known as the Dam Busters was from Manilla (NSW) where I grew up and Don Kennedy was an absolute hero when I was a child.  He was a solicitor and I worked for him when I first left school.

Later we had lunch nearby and as it was still fine, although overcast, so we decided to go back over the hills around us and we could see much more today than on Tuesday when we first arrived at Castleton.