Derbyshire and Fly Fishing on the River Wye

On Friday afternoon, we rented a car and drove ourselves to Derbyshire, 135 miles up country, into the English countryside.  Mark had to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, navigate tight, winding streets, numerous freeway roundabouts, and very heavy traffic on the M1 - Friday was the getaway night for most of the UK because it was the start of a "Bank Holiday", which meant that Monday would be closed for government and banking, while stores and tourista places will be open for business.  So, after our "white knuckled" drive, we finally arrived at the Peacock Inn in Derbyshire:

The next morning, which was quite a wet one with the entire country blanketed by a rain front, we took off for the River Wye with our guide Andy to get in some flyfishing.  I took a couple of photos, but Mark took most of them during this outing. The River Wye is where it is said that fly fishing first began! 

After an hour-and-a-half, I happily sloshed my way back to the Inn, dried up, and sat down in their lovely cushy lounge for tea and shortbread cookies. 

Mark and Andy stayed out there for almost another 3 hours, and thankfully, the rain began to dissipate, but they didn't care, they had a good time. 

 

Mark caught two "greylings" - the native English fish in the river.  There were also rainbow trout that were introduced from northern California in the 1920's.  By now, the Derbyshire fly fishers think of them as native to the River Wye also. 

After fishing all those hours, Mark returned to his own pot of tea and shortbread cookies!