Took off and it wasn't long before a group of us started winding out. It seemed quite slow, both the climb and drift. Arriving west of Chesterfield there was lift but it was really fragmented, which flummoxed me a bit. Decided to really slow down and eek things out till well past the M1. Found the only solid 6up thermal of the whole flight several k past the M1 and entered the wisps a bit for the first time at about 4600ft. Base rose a bit later, 5100ft, with clouds giving reliable, if a little rough, lift. Past Newark the base dropped to about 4300 which surprised me. The nicest part was finding 3 buzzards at 2000 ft. At Bottesford and winding up to 4000ft with them on the way to Grantham.