Day 1 on the Pennine Way, Edale to Crowden

Day one on the Pennine way. Edale to crowden.

Breakfast was quite late at the B&B in edale which meant a later start than I had hoped. I set off at about 9:15 and across some friendly looking fields. Stopping to take some video of me starting the way and some selfies. But before long (and you are aware of this because it is ominously brooding above you) you find yourself scrabbling 2000ft and more up Jacob's Lander - up to kinder Scout, it's quite exhausting! 

I paused for a drink at the top of the steepest bit and then realised that I was actually nowhere near the top of Kinder scout-- which is always a hazard of!  hill walking! I hacked my way up to the top and took a breather by the rock. The pathway swings around to Kinder downfall which can be quite a sight in a high wind with the waterfall blowing literally backwards up the mountain. But today it was a mere trickle allowing us to cross much earlier than we would normally do. 

You then tramp your way to mill hill, and a long hack across boggy land with helpfully placed flagstones so that you can't go wrong or get stuck in the bog. I found this section to be a long drag but was playing LeapFrog with a couple of new friends I had found from South  Korea called Harry and Han. We finally reached snake pass road, the a57 and crossed over to find some stones that were ideal to sit on for a lunch break.

I say lunch, but it was a couple of biscuits from the B&B bedroom, some flapjack that I made and brought with me and a flask of instant coffee. It was a proper break which means you take your boots and your socks off! There are other kinds of break - the one where you stop to take photos, the one where you Scrabble about in your rucksack for something you need, and the one where you pretend to look at a fabulous View for far too long, and the one where you have a big swig of water.

After snake pass is a horrible scramble up which lives up to its name as a rock strewn bleak place - Bleaklow, and I didn't enjoy this section at all. The section passes the hern stones and the wain stones which are totally underwhelming and finally winds its rock strewn way to bleaklow head which is just a big pile of rocks. You imagine when you get to this point that what will follow is a long gentle descent into crowden. This is absolutely not the case! 

What follows is an absolutely horrible scramble down rocky tracks and along a death defying path inviting  you to look to the right, be startled and fall to your death! Then it scrambles horribly downhill steeply and this is where my knees began to complain vociferously. 

When I got to the bottom I wondered if my knees would ever work again. However, now I was at the bottom and a stone's throw from crowden. I looked up where my accommodation was to find that it was a further 2 miles up the road. Google maps said that it was largely flat but this was an outrageous lie! The good news was that my knees settled down and rather enjoyed walking up a hill. My thighs were not so impressed! 

Never have I been so delighted to reach the front door of a B&B.  Brian and inga who I had met in edale had been there for 2 and 1/2 hours. (I don't think that they stop and stare quite as much as I did!) On the plus side, they had ordered too much pizza from the takeaway and shared it with me. The bar was open and we compared war wounds over a couple of pints. I think I had walked about 18 miles.

I went off to bed wondering whether when I got up I would be in any fit state to even begin day two....

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