Bleaklow to Upper Booth

Distance: 11.5 miles

Weather: overcast

Number of mountain hares: 3

Number of lizardy things: 1 (could have been 2, depending on whether other tail I saw disappearing under a rock was a lizardy thing or a snake)

It was just gone a quarter past six this morning (rather earlier than my usual hour) when I left my camping spot and took to the trail again. The weather was decidedly overcast, but still warm enough for most of the walk to be completed in my short sleeves*.

Heat was also being generated by my speed. I was on a mission! Mick had very kindly offered to come and pick me up from Edale, and I had given a ridiculously early estimated time of arrival. I could have revised my estimate, but I was up for a challenge, so along I sped to see how close to that time I could get.

Approaching Wain Stones (I’d deviated from the Pennine Way to camp, and rejoined it just after Wain Stones)

I still had time to look around me though, and to take a few photos (although the weather conditions weren’t really ideal for getting good views), and I passed a few minutes with a chap who had also opted for an early start, but was heading the other way on his first day of the Way.

About to hit a layer of low-level cloud, on my way to the Snake Road

At Kinder Downfall (not boasting much liquid falling down today) time was taken for second breakfast and to don an extra layer. The day was still reasonably warm, but there was quite a brisk wind, so as soon as I stopped I cooled quickly.

The rather dry river bed, looking upstream from Kinder Downfall

I was soon on the go again, and only five minutes later I saw someone else coming towards me, and who should it be but Mick? Perhaps at that point I could have slowed down, as the ETA was irrelevant, but uttering “I want to see if I can make it to Jacob’s Ladder by 10”, I barely broke stride as Mick did an about turn and we trotted along together (me chatting incessantly, but Mick probably expected that!).

We did make it to Jacob’s Ladder by 10, and by 11 we were at Barber Booth, which is where Mick had parked. Given that my objective for the walk was to reach Glossop, I didn’t feel obligated to walk the final couple of miles over to Edale to consider my walk complete, and so without further ado** into the car we got. Ten minutes later, on our way home, it started to rain. Excellent timing, I thought.

And so my FAT*** was over. Excellent fun it was too (I think the weather helped). I rather liked the Pennine Way when we walked it as part of our LEJOG in 2008, but had forgotten quite how nice it is, and that section between Horton and Edale does boast an excellent selection of scenery.

(*Actually, when I say ‘my short sleeves’, I mean Mick’s, because I accidentally picked up Mick’s black short sleeved Icebreaker rather than my own. It’s the problem of having Howard & Hilda kit. As it happens, I found the baggy fit much more comfortable in the conditions.

**That’s not strictly true. If you must know, before I got into the car I looked around to check there was no-one in the immediate vicinity, and dropped my trousers. “Urgh” said Mick. I knew that the bites on my right leg were quite large, but my reaction to them seemed to have increased ten fold since last night. Don’t know what it was that bit me on that leg, but my body doesn’t seem to object so much to whatever bit me on the left leg. That’ll teach me to close my leg vents before sitting on the grass for lunch!

***Football Avoidance Trip)