Day 2 on the Pennine Way, Crowden to Diggle

Day two on the pennine way. Crowden to Diggle. 

Earlier breakfast this morning, which meant that Brian Inga and myself could set off at about 8:30.  The B&B owner helpfully gave us a lift down to where the pennine way continues,, which saved us 2 miles!

We had heard strong wind in the night and we all woke to driving rain, and when we set off it was raining. So we pulled on backpack rain protectors dawned. Our raincoats, covered ourselves up and set off.  The rain didn't last long and before long we had settled into yet another long climb past a quarry called Moses quarry and up a few steep scrambles. 

We emerged on a glorious path which took us above a river on the ridge. Inga cheerfully pointed out that it would be very easy to push your husband off along this track and get away with murder. The track followed a lovely valley along bareholme Moss and featherbed Moss, though neither of us knew what a moss is. Apparently it means bog or swamp. 

We started to track uphill across various lumps and bumps each of which promised to be the horizon which led to the point where the path began to descend, but each was merely the prelude to another lump or bump. Dun hill hill, black hill and soldiers lump. We were trying to find a spot that was sheltered from the howling gale that had blown up but were entirely thwarted. There simply was nowhere to sit down and have a coffee and eat some flapjack. 

Eventually we reached the trig point and met a man trekking the other way who was doing land's end to John o groats and mostly wild camping. Suddenly it seemed like the pennine way wasn't such a big deal! 

We pressed on all the way up to the a635 and a young man passed us going faster than we were, saying that he had heard that there was sometimes a burger van in the lay by at the crossing place on the a635. But he couldn't see it and was hoping his eyes were deceiving him. 

Our eyes were deceiving us. The track up to the a635, whilst uphill did not look too threatening. However, hidden along the track were two huge gullies that you had to scramble down and then back up again. We were not hugely happy! 

Reaching the road there was clearly no burger van and the young man had disappeared. We pressed on and across the road down a track towards some reservoirs. The first of them unnamed. And we found a miraculous spot on a grassy bank where there was no wind, so we stopped for lunch.  Brian had some leftover cold pizza and share the piece with me, inga had a cup of soup and a yoghurt she had liberated from the B&B breakfast bar and I shared my tub of homemade flapjack which I had brought with me. I had a flask of coffee. 

Brian and inga set a much faster pace than I do and do not stop to take photographs, record memorised Psalms, or simply stop and stare. It was probably quite good for me to set this pace and get some strength in my legs. 

Eventually we started to descend and we saw the first of the two reservoirs which herald the proximity of diggle. Like the previous day, I imagined a gentle downhill straw into diggle. And it looked that way for quite some time. Over the other side of the river that we were following at a great height, there was a really strange and very steep stone path descending almost vertically down the side of the valley and down to the stream. We couldn't work out what it was or where it went and mused about it possibly being a folly even. Imagine our delight when the path suddenly turned to the left descended very steeply down into the valley and then back up this vertical stone staircase/path. There were cadets coming down it and even if it sounds a bit odd we were quite glad we were going up it rather than down it. 

When we got to the top spots of rain began and the path seemed to be going inexplicably uphill again. Given we were expecting a gentle descent into diggle. The spots of rain turned into a colossal downpour and the wind changed direction and increased significantly blowing the rain directly into our faces for a couple of miles as we slogged across some scabby moorland. 

Once we got past the second reservoir though it became easier, though more showers of rain developed. We strolled down a path for about a mile and a half and found ourselves in the centre of the village of diggle and directly at the hotel where Brian and inga were staying. My B&B was a simple 3-minute walk around the corner. Because of Brian and inga's cracking pace, we arrived at about 4:30, which was better than my effort on day one.

During one of the steep Inga lent me one of her poles to see if it would help with my knee pain. It did, and I am now a walking poles evangelist! I feel fairly confident about tomorrow, I'm heading to hebden bridge. There is, again, a climb at the beginning, but most of it is on long tedious gravel trails. It might be that that feels like a slog, but it doesn't look like there is quite as much climbing or downward scrabbling as there has been on days one and two. 

Oh yes!! We saw curlews hovering over the Derbyshire peaks!  My Australian friends said they had seen a bird of prey with a really long beak. I told him there wasn't really a bird of prey in the UK with a really long beak that would hover close to the ground. then when we were travelling together we saw two or three of them and I could only guess that they were curlews. When I got back I googled long beaked waders in the Derbyshire peaks - and it turns out they are quite a common site! We also saw Canada geese out on the moorland which wasn't something I expected to see.

Early breakfast tomorrow at 7:00 a.m., I aim to make a good start and perhaps even get ahead of Brian and inga. Stoodly Pike is on the route and we cross over the bridge over the m62 - both of which are things I remember seeing from my childhood in the northwest.