Had a fantastic day out in Castleton. What a lovely village! A Norman castle, 4 show caves and six pubs - perfect! We started out from Broadbottom in rare but brilliant sunshine but once over Snake Pass we descended into cloud that stayed with us the rest of the day, so low that Peveril castle was invisible from the village and once in the castle, the great hills around may just as well not have existed.
We visited Peak Cavern, known locally as the Devil's Arse for the rude noises that issue when the cavern floods. Poppy was very concerned there might be bears in the cave and clung tightly to my hand, often using her other hand to check we were still attached. But she grew chatty and soon everyone in our little group knew all about her.
One thing that troubled her a bit about Castleton was that nobody knew her. In our village everyone knows Poppy and she found it strange that she could walks past so many people and recognise none, and that nobody would say "Hello Poppy" and chat to her. Can there really be so many strangers in the world? It took a while to explain that not everybody lived in Broadbottom and other people had houses in other villages. She still felt unsettled by it though, which amused me as she was actually born in an anonymous city.
