Peak District 2023 - Day 7

Monday 8 May 2023

The forecast for today was dire, and so it has proved. Steady rain and zero visibility. I had planned to walk up the Pennine Way today to the summit of Black Hill, and back via a different route, but it was not to be. Not just the steady rain but the conditions underfoot, it is not called Black Hill for nothing..

So I decided to motor home a day early.. and this is just a short note to say so and mention that I have added a few photos to yesterday's post, and one or two elsewhere as well.

Not quite as action-packed a week as would be ideal, but some nice walks nevertheless. Thank you for reading!

 

 A last look at the peat .. it should be called the Peat District, really!

 

Peak District 2023 - Days 5 & 6

 Day 5         Saturday May 6 2023       1.8 miles,  3664 steps

Not so much to report today. Weather has been uniformly dull and drizzly. I drove Larry around from Hayfield to Crowden, where I will be until Tuesday. I was all set to go for a walk this afternoon, but on arrival was given a ticket for a drinks and nibbles do, starting at 2.30pm in honour of the coronation.. by the time that was over, it was too late to do anything more than wander around the neighbourhood a little, and plan the remaining two days.

Tomorrow (Sunday), the weather is supposed to be reasonable and I have mapped out a walk of about 11 miles that goes along the Woodhead reservoir and then up to Bleaklow Head before returning via the Pennine Way to Torside. The weather for Monday is looking bad so I have left that for now and will have another look tomorrow evening.

The Crowden campsite is smaller than Hayfield and has no w-fi (!) and a very poor mobile signal. But the people here are very friendly. It is actually the third time I have been here, having stayed on each of my last two PW traverses, in 2014 and 2019.

 It is coronation day, and the camp office is having a little party!

 Day 6     Sunday May 7 2023        13.1 miles, 26,561 steps

Ha, that's more like it .. fine weather all day today, a bit dull and gloomy to start but it gradually got better as the day went on, and in the afternoon we saw actual sun! 

As previously mentioned, at 636m high Kinder Scout is the highest point in the Peak District, and in fact in the whole of the East Midlands. So obvously it towers over Bleaklow Head, which can only manage a puny 633m at summit... although of course that is still higher than most of the Kinder Plateau. And, it has lots of peat bogs!

Today I plotted a route from Crowden that went along the Trans Pennine Trail, which follows an old railway line alongside the reservoirs as far as the Woodhead Tunnel, and then I set off up the hill towards Bleaklow Head, returning to Crowden down the Pennine Way. Altogether, about 13 miles but given the nice weather and the ability to meander along at my own pace it all went very well. about 8 hours, leaving just after 8am and getting back about 4pm, but with plenty of stops to admire the remarkable views hereabouts, so not too bad.

The Woodhead Tunnel is an amazing thing. For example, there are not one but three! The first tunnel was built in 1845. It is a little over 3 miles long, and an amazing engineering feat, the longest tunnel in the world at that time. And well, they had gunpowder but all the rest was done with picks and shovels. What muscles they must have had! They forged the first rail link between Manchester and Sheffield, to the huge benefit of both cities. So obvously the thing to do was to build a second tunnel, alongside the first, which they did, opening in 1853. These two tunnels served the line until 1953, when the third tunnel was built, bigger so it could have dual track working. The two original tunnels were closed, but were used for 500,000v electricity cables to help power Manchester and avoid the need for pylons over the Peaks. More pylons  I should say, as there are quite a lot around. Passenger traffic ceased around 1980 (and the cables transferred across) and now all of the tunnels are closed to public view. But see some photos, below.

So far as the walk goes, walking along an old railway line is never very stressful so I arrived at Woodhead in good order. I set off up the hill which became a typical peat district slog.. a steady uphill climb, with lot of interesting stuff underfoot. Today I wore my old Berghaus Supalite leather boots and they are the bees knees when it comes to dealing with peat bogs or rocky terrain. Much better that the trail shoes and Inov8 boots I have been wearing so far. I saw nobody at all on the way up, until I reached the summit. Once there, you are on the Pennine Way, so more people appeared but it never felt crowded or busy. We are over 2,000ft after all, so getting there takes some work.

I sat for a while and had my snack du jour, a small tin of mackerel in sunflower oil. They are great nutrition but tricky, you have to open the tin just right and drain the sunflower oil out, or else it goes all over everywhere, and a lapful of sunflower oil is best avoided (don't ask me how I know this).

After that, I set off back down to Crowden along the PW, a path I have done several times before, in both directions. This way is best, the views as the Torside and Woodhead reservoirs come into sight are very impressive. It is a long descent though, hard on the knees. The PW then goes along the top of the Torside dam, turns right and heads along towards Crowden through a really nice pine grove. Got back to the Crowden campsite about 4pm with a list of things to do .. cook a meal, have a shower, video call to Sue, write this blog. So, three out of four isn't bad is it? I will have a shower in the morning, perhaps ...

NB: updated 9 May, with more photos..

The Woodhead reservoir, with part of the Trans-Pennine Trail to right, using the old railway line

Looking across the Woodhead reservoir. Misty morning!

The old Woodhead railway station, with the three tunnel entrances behind.

Climbing up Near Black Clough, with nobody in sight!

Peat mounds near the summit of Bleaklow. Lots of them, don't try walking over them in the wet!

Hartkeks! A special biscuit, produced for the Dutch armed forces, that my friends Hans & Diny introduced me to in the Pyrenees. This is my last packet, and on the side it says "Exp. 30 Nov 2014." So I thought maybe I should use them up. Well they are still hard, but they did have a slightly strange taste .. if you try not to taste them, they are still great!

The summit of Bleaklow head, the big stones are called the Wain Stones, who knows why? There is a far view, needs a big screen to see it though!

A cairn and pole, but it is not the summit so not sure why they are there

Looking down at Torside reservoir on the return journey, along the Pennine Way.

Peak District 2023 - Day 4

 Friday 5 May 2023

Well it has rained nearly all day today, and coupled with the exertions of yesterday a not totally unwelcome feeling of lethargy has been induced.

So not much to report, and not really enough miles or steps to be worth recording. I did do a little housekeeping, tidied up the van, dug out the printer I brought with me, and persuaded it to work .. why do I need a printer, I hear you ask? To print out The Times crosswords with, of course. I could do them online, I know, but somehow it isn't the same as a nice crisp piece of paper so you can see all of the clues at once, and scribble out anagrams etc..

No blog is complete without a picture, so here is one of my lunch today; can you guess what it is?

 

 

 

Yes, right first time.. it is half a tin of Sainsbury's beef curry, half a bag of Aldi "Indian Style Grains," and a generous helping of peas. All simmered together for a few minutes. Delicious!

Tomorrow I am leaving here and moving to a campsite in Crowden. It is bang on the Pennine Way, and I have stayed there twice when walking the PW. Funny coincidence, it was raining the last time too!

Peak District 2023 - Day 3

 4 May 2023    16.2 miles, 32872 steps

This might be a long post .. I can't work out whether Thursday has been a triumph, or a disaster.. you decide.

One of my ambitions was to circumnavigate the Kinder plateau. If you keep to the top bit, it is about 14 miles around. Pfft, a bagatelle! I routinely walk further than that, and I have friends it seems who can walk 50! But we are forgetting a few things. The terrain on Kinder is not easy. Lots of picking your way over rocks, and through bogs (read on!) and no tarmac, gravel paths or similar here. And then there is the weather .. and you have to get up there, to 2,000ft or so, and get down again afterwards.

Still, surely nothing we can't cope with. I say we, because my friend Wayne Boothman came yesterday.  We had a fine dinner in The Sportsman, as previously mentioned; and a nice breakfast this morning, courtesy of bacon and Cumberland sausage provided by Wayne, toast and coffee provided by me. And we did the walk together, today..

Things started perfectly well with a steady walk up to the Kinder reservoir, and then up William Clough as I did yesterday. It is a lovely ... clough. Picturesque, and no hardship at all to do it a second time. However when we got up to the Pennine Way, and then up that to the plateau, I discovered that it was a windy day. A really windy day. The sort of day when the wind batters at you, and walking in a straight line becomes an issue, because the gusts threaten to push you over. 

We stood there for a moment deciding what to do, but what can you do? The sensible thing would have been to turn round, go straight back down the way we came, and head back to the Sportsman for a consoling beer. So obviously, not an option for us. What we did instead, as you might expect, was to carry on a bit, and see if things improved. 

Well they didn't. 

we ploughed on, but throughout the day, bar the occasional blissful gap, the wind howled around us. Wayne sailed serenely through, athletic, untroubled and although he said his legs ached, I wasn't convinced, but I found the constant battering from the wind quite draining and the going hard. We did cut off the far end of the Plateau, finding a route across the middle - interesting in itself, because peat bogs ... some folk say that the Pennine Way is not what it once was, because nowadays there are flagstones over (most of) the boggy bits. Well if the bogs we had to traverse today are any guide, they should be grateful for such a humanitarian act. Three times, I nearly lost a boot in the bog.. and had to prise my walking pole back out of the deep. We coped, but it cost time and effort, and rude words were said.

We had started at 8.30am, and finished about 7pm, so it was a long day. Still, we eventually wound our way back down the mountain and to the campsite. Annoyingly it rained heavily for the last hour or so; and by that time, I was thinking that Kinder was trying to say something to me. I was glad to get back to Larry the motorhome, and a nice glass of red.

I am writing this today, Friday, and it has been pretty wet all day. I am still trying to decide if I enjoyed it or not yesterday, and I am bound to conclude that yes, I did enjoy it. Wayne was a constant patient, friendly, and knowledgeable presence and if the Kinder plateau was not quite as welcoming as it sometimes is, still it is a wonderful place to be. If I were as fit as Wayne is, I would have enjoyed it more but that is my own fault and something that can be worked on.

Well, there you go. It was an interesting day, and I don't think walking 16 miles has ever before cost me quite so much effort. But as someone once said, a bad day in the mountains is still better than a good day in the office. I still love the Kinder Scout plateau.

One more thing about the day.. my friend Reg Edmunds, who I met in the Pyrenees in 2016 and have kept in touch with ever since, has been walking the Pennine Way, North to South so finishing at Edale. Reg is 78, has overcome a number of health issues including cancer, and is altogether a walking dynamo, and a truly wonderful example of what you can do, an example to anyone (me for example) who feels that age is creeping up on them. I am moving Larry to Crowden tomorrow, which is on the PW, and I had hopes of meeting him there and maybe walking a way with him. Unfortunately, he has been too quick for me! He has done the whole PW (for the third time, so he has caught me up now!) in only 15 days including a rest day, and  has arrived today at Edale. Our route homewards actually crossed the PW, at about 6pm, and we were only a bare few minutes away from meeting Reg on the trail. Sadly, it was not to be, and the conditions did not allow for sitting about waiting. So close! Still, we had a nice chat on the phone and it turns out that Reg has a sister who lives near us, so we will meet up again before too long, I hope.

Not many photos! That sort of day:

 

Sheltering. That is wind gear I am wearing, not rain gear!

Peat bogs!

Still a magnificent place, weather notwithstanding..

 

The Edale Cross, a truly historic monument

Peak District 2023 - Day 2

Wednesday 3 May 2023    10.1 miles 20,596 steps

Having survived yesterday in reasonably good order - legs felt quite OK this morning - I thought it was time to get back up to the Kinder plateau. I set off up towards the reservoir, but this time went up William Clough, one of the popular routes up to the top. The one that was taken on the Mass Trespass, in fact. They were clearly fit in those days, because William Clough is quite steep and rocky. No need for scrambling though, and I got up to the junction with the Pennine Way in good order. The plan was to follow the PW back towards Edale for a bit, as far as the Kinder Downfall, and then to find a suitable path back down towards Hayfield. I had forgot that there are steep bits on the PW as well, and it was a 100m ascent up steps to get to the Plateau proper, so about a 400m climb in all. 

Easy going after that, however, and I walked along to Kinder Downfall - more of a Kinder Trickle, today - where I sat for a bit. A few people about, as is to be expected here, but it was not busy or crowded. Then I set off, continuing towards Edale, to Red Clough where I thought there might be some routes back down the mountain. Indeed there were, and the path I followed was a really pleasant path, a delight to walk on, that meandered along the side of the hill, descending gently as it went and with fine views over towards Hayfield and beyond. A dry turf path, with a springy peat underlay so your feet bounce as you walk, is the very best walking there is..

I heard a cuckoo today, and several curlews. I love curlews, they always signify the high moors to me.. Their appearance and their calls are very evocative, and so distinctive even I can recognise them. Not so many as there used to be, sadly.

Having got back to Larry, and had a nice hot shower, my friend Wayne appeared. We had a beer and a chat and then set off up to the pub which I had booked for dinner, The Sportsman Inn.. We had an excellent meal, much better than normal pub grub, and next time you are in Hayfield, I recommend it. And we had a good chat too, so that after the meal it was necessary to come back down to Larry and have a nice glass of Malbec and chat some more. But tomorrow, we are set to traverse the whole Kinder plateau so an early night was called for.

A good day, overall. 

Looking down at the Kinder dam and reservoir. Extraordinary, to think that basically it was all built with buckets and spades. 

The Kinder Trickle.. sometimes though, it can be very different!

 View from the top, immense .. Manchester is towards the right side.

 

 

 The downward path, dry and springy

 

 

The Sportsman Inn. A very welcoming and comfortable place with excellent food

Peak District 2023 - Preparation and Day 1

 Tuesday 2 May 2023     7.3 miles, 14,891 steps

Covid and lockdown put a real kink into my walking activities.. you would think not, but long distance walks are tricky if all the pubs and restaurants are shut. And a week's food is heavy! So, there has not been a lot of action lately. However, it is time to get out into the hills, and for me that means another visit to the Peak District. Just for once, I am not going to Edale. Instead, I am taking Larry La Strada the motorhome up to a campsite in Hayfield. Hayfield is bigger than Edale, and about the same distance from the Kinder plateau; but nobody has heard of it, because it isn't the start of the Pennine Way!

It does have a claim to real fame, however: it was the starting point for the Kinder Mass Trespass, in 1932. Look it up if you haven't heard of it, it is a crucial event in the fight for public access to the countryside. This is a fight that is not yet won, until we finally gain the same rights as in Scotland. But things are so much better now than they were then. 

 Hayfield is proud of its role in the Mass Trespass, and celebrates it each year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Hayfield claim to fame .. I had not realised Arthur Lowe died as long ago as 1982

Usually I try to keep weight to a minimum and only pack the essentials, and give a list of what I am taking. But with my lovely motorhome, I can take everything! Everything, I tell you! Ha ha ha ha ... and not only that, it comes with a shower, comfy mattress and a cooker and fridge..

So now here I am in the Camping and caravanning club site in Hayfield, ten minutes from the village, two minutes from a pub, and quite close to Kinder reservoir, and the paths up to the plateau. I got here about 2pm and after something to eat I shall wander down to the village and then up to to and around the reservoir. Tomorrow, I will walk up William Clough to the plateau and go along to the Kinder Downfall. It would be nice to follow the River Kinder back down to the reservoir, but I don't know if that is possible. The downfall is a waterfall, after all .. we shall see. No hurry.

On Thursday I want to do a complete circuit of the Kinder plateau. It is quite a long way - 16 miles and 900m of ascent, overall - a typical day in the Pyrenees, but I am well out of practice and condition. Still I will give it a try. My friend Wayne is coming along too, so I shall have some company.

Not wishing to waste the afternoon, I set off to have a look around Hayfield, a pleasant little town, and then walked up to and around the Kinder Reservoir. Like many similar reservoirs it is a considerable feat of engineering, entailing the opening of two quarries and the building of a tramway and a railway  and railway station too. You cannot walk along the dam, unfortunately, but you can walk close to the water most of the way around. 

Larry La Strada at the Hayfield camping site

 

The Kinder Reservoir dam. Kinder Downfall is just visible at top left, next to the tree