Yesterday morning there wasn’t really a sunrise. Obviously the sun rose, but it was hidden behind a lot of cloud, and sideways rain. So this morning I decided to drive to Castleton, and go up Mam Tor for the sunrise.

My first problem, when I got in the car and set the sat nav up was that I realised that I’d misremembered how long it would take me to drive there. For some reason, I’d thought it would take me 26 minutes (weirdly specific), but actually it was 47. So that pretty much meant that I wouldn’t be at the top or the tor when the sun peaked over the horizon.

My second problem happened when I got there. You have to drive up the road in the image above to get to the top and park. I could see a fair few photographers (I assumed!) lined up on the ridge, and I was suprised by how many there were. However, I wasn’t prepared for how many people would be stood at the top of the tor! There is a car park there and it was full, as were the laybys nearest the car park. So this, teamed with the fact I was already running late meant I decided I was going to walk to the pass, rather than up the tor.

There were a fair few people out overlooking the pass, but far fewer than were up the tor; so I’ll have to do the tor another day. I’m assuming it was so busy because it was “the first sunrise of the new year”. Rather than it’s just always that busy, however I may be wrong!