Day 3 on the Pennine Way, Diggle to Hebden Bridge

Day 3 of the pennine way. Diggle to hebden bridge.

First things first, and I suggest those of a delicate nature look away now, there are certain practicalities to bear in mind when doing a long distance walk. One of those things that I have been slightly anxious about is, not to put it too delicately, toileting. To put it bluntly, I hadn't done a poo since Sunday. Well, I am happy to report that I performed successfully at the B&B this morning, thus ridding me of the slight anxiety of having to find a suitable spot in the wild to dig a hole and squat. 

While we are on emissions, there's a whole lot more running of my nose than I expected. This seems to happen most often in the wind when it is battering your face which makes it very difficult to keep finding a tissue in one of my many pockets and blow my nose in a gale force wind. 

Anyway, moving on.  A lovely breakfast of Weetabix, toast and poached eggs set me up nicely for the day alongside a big pot of coffee. Then the host offered to drive me back up to the start of the Pennine way at the point where we had left it the day before. This was about a mile and a half uphill and was very welcome indeed! 

Pretty soon I was up on the moor and being absolutely battered by a strong wind that had blown up and persisted for most of the journey up on exposed moor line through the day. I soon ticked off a trig point and pressed on over the moor over the a640 and on to the m62. I was looking forward to crossing the m62 because I remember seeing people walking across it in earlier years. It is quite something to hear the roar of the m62 and have miles of isolation and solitude suddenly interrupted by the hustle and rush of everyday life. After the m62 footbridge you climb up to Blackstone edge which I didn't know was Blackstone edge when I got there, but I decided that the Blackstone edge I've often heard about simply must be this edge of Blackstone with spectacular views and I was right. 

Just before Blackstone edge I met and chatted with a bloke called Colin who was from New Zealand and was doing the Pennine way in 15 days with a huge backpack but somehow was going faster than me. In his huge backpack he had a wet tent and he was nearly 70 years old! I bumped into him a couple of times as we leapfrogged each other on the way. 

At another trig point I also met Johnny who we had met the day before on his quest for the burger van which wasn't there. In chatting we discovered that we were both ministers in the church- me in the URC obviously, and him a Pentecostal pastor in Huddersfield. 

The path swings down to the a58 and the White House pub where I again met Johnny and Colin. Johnny was meeting a friend from his church for lunch. 

I pressed on and made good quick progress along a very long stretch of stone path which ran along several reservoirs. This stretch seemed endless and whilst it was good to make progress, it was hard on the feet. The reservoirs seem quite low. After you finally leave the reservoirs, the next feature is the aiggin stone.  A plaque says the Aiggin Stone is a Medieval waymarker that is 600 years old. Originally it was 7 foot high but over hundreds of years it has been pushed over, or fallen over, and the lower section broken off. The stone tapers towards the top where the Latin-style cross is carved. A pointed cairn stands beside the waymarker stone, no doubt being added to over hundreds of years by walkers traversing the high-level ancient route between Littleborough and Ripponden, high up on the windswept Pennines moors.

These marker stones or waymarkers were used for religious purposes; travellers would stop at the stone and say a prayer for a safe journey over the bleak, windswept moors. Some of these stones were even used by people carrying coffins; the coffin rested here and prayers for the dead would be recited, perhaps a stone or two placed on top of the cairn as well. Just below the carved cross are two letters I and T which obviously have some religious significance, possibly meaning IN TEDIUM or ‘In the Lord we trust’ or ‘In praise of the Lord’. Near the bottom of the stone some more letters: an I or a T and perhaps ED (In Tedium).

After the aiggin stone your heading for Stoodly Pike and you walk across miles of nondescript moorland before you are rewarded with your first View. Stoodly Pike is a mysterious monument. You don't approach it full frontal, that would be madness! Your tiptoe around the back of it as if to take it by surprise. But instead it takes you by surprise. The landscape is laid out in such a way that it completely disappears at least twice despite it dominating the landscape. And are you imagining that it is visible from anywhere. It is also one of those monuments that you always think you are about to arrive at, but it seems you never are. Obviously you do arrive but for a long time it seems like you never will. 

Here I bumped into Harry and Han again, from day 1.

After that it's downhill to Hebden bridge and it's a long gentle approach just like the long gentle approach I have been longing for. The path goes flat along the valley bed through lush green farmers Fields full of sheep, lambs and cows. That is, until the path plunges suicidally down a car crash of a steep hill strewn with rocks and barely wide enough for one person. This did not please my knee!  

When I finally got down, two mountain bikers emerged shortly after me - madness!!

17 and a half miles walked today - which is a lengthy slog. I bit easier tomorrow - just 12 and a half :-)