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Sunday 20th May 2012 Edale to Crowden Yesterday had been my Aunt Madge's 90th birthday celebrations although her actual birthday is today, the 20th. Trisha and Amber had driven up to Manchester with me and we had all been for a meal at the Legh Arms in Adlington with Glynis, Graham, and Nick. Today was the start of the walk so in the morning Trisha drove me to Edale and after a nice scrambled egg breakfast at the Penny Pot Café I posed for my start photo outside the Nags Head and finally set off.
I'd pared the rucksack down as much as I could, even discarding my shorts and one of my shirts at the last minute, but it still weighed nearly 30lb, making it a fair old load to cart around. Of course part of that was the tent, sleeping bag and Thermarest that I felt compelled to take with me as the penalty for not booking any accommodation in advance. The reason for that, of course, was that I liked having the flexibility to change my plans at short notice, have a rest day and the like. Almost as soon as I set off I was greeted by a couple of fellow walkers, James and Keith, and walked along with them for a couple of hours. Their natural speed was slightly faster than mine though - not difficult as I like the leisurely approach - and eventually I dropped back and let them forge ahead.
James was in his fifties, tall, grey-haired and had a small Roger Delgado type beard; he was on the 31st day of a walk from Land's End to Berwick-on-Tweed, the length of England. He was self-employed and reckoned he could afford to take two months off for the walk but not three so he would be back to do the remaining stretch of the UK, to John o' Groats, another time. His walking companion was Keith - same age or maybe a tad older, shorter and bald but similarly bearded; he was retired but had just married for the first time a year ago. Keith wasn't doing the whole walk with James but had done some at the start and was doing a week's worth now. Previously, however, he had walked one of the old Pilgrim trails to Rome, a trek of 1300 miles, and was very proud of it. I think he'd met his wife whilst walking. Once out of Edale the route was just the same as I remembered it from the last time I'd been there, back in 2008 with the blokes from work. We rounded the side of a hill and ascended Jacob's Ladder up onto the Kinder Scout plateau with its wind-sculpted rock formations and barren peat-hag bogs. It took a long time getting round the edge of the plateau, longer than you'd expect from a cursory glance at the map. I stopped for a while at Kinder Downfall and washed my feet in the stream there as it was a fine, sunny day and they were getting a bit hot. I wasn't in a hurry anyway and James and Keith had wandered off ahead.
As I sat by the stream I started to eat a sandwich and this quickly attracted the attention of a fairly aggressive sheep who wanted to share it. Used to being given titbits, I expect, but nothing from me today - she wasn't polite enough. After a while I carried on and on leaving Kinder I dropped down to Mill Hill then followed a stretch of paving stones across the fairly level bog - it seemed to go on forever but eventually I reached the A57 having done just over 9 miles at this point. According to the guide book it would then take me a further three hours to get to Crowden Youth Hostel from there. This was the only accommodation for miles and I'd rung up the previous day to book myself in: £15 for a room and £2 for a towel.
At the A57 I had stopped for a rest and another sandwich and met James and Keith again. I also met another bloke who was doing just three days of the Way to see how far he could get in that time. He had longish dark hair and slightly crooked teeth and must have been about 37 as he talked about joining the forces for four years when he was 17 (Royal Engineers) and had been in the Falkland Islands in 1993. I walked on with him for a while as we approached Bleaklow Head. There were no steep ascents here, just an easy incline which eventually brought us to the heights above Torside Reservoir.
As we dropped down to the reservoir my new pal fell behind a bit and I carried on alone down to the reservoir, pretty knackered by now, walking across the dam and along the other side to the Youth Hostel. I had a big meal there - soup, lasagna, rhubarb crumble and two pots of tea. I was a bit dehydrated and just seemed to absorb the tea straight in, plus a glass or two of water. James and Keith were there at the hostel too, along with an older chap - well my age probably - who'd walked from Kirk Yetholm to Crowden in ten days. Very impressive. He expected to complete his traverse of the Way the following day in Edale. He told us he was a Fell runner at other times and that he'd run 60 miles in 18 hours on one occasion. There were no other people staying at the hostel but then a young chap on his own turned up - 20s, sandy hair, nervous demeanour - just walking until Wednesday. Unable to get a mobile phone signal there I phoned Trisha from the payphone and then rang Madge to wish her a happy birthday. Distance: 17.2 miles Average speed: 2.5 mph Total ascent: 2896 feet Total Distance: 17.2 miles | ||||||
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