Wednesday – To Bamford

Wednesday 8 June (0720 – 1600)

Distance: 20 miles

Weather: Sunshine and showers

Number of times the waterproofs went on and came off: 5

It was a bit parky in the night up at 2000 feet and the expected warming morning sun didn’t materialise. The reason for that became apparent when I unzipped and found myself to be in the cloud.

The cloud soon lifted (and my feet warmed up for the first time in 11 hours) as I continued along the north edge of the plateau to join the Pennine Way down to the Snake Road and then up towards Bleaklow.

Over breakfast I had considered the map again. The route I’d plotted on Monday night had me going over Bleaklow then over Howden Moor to Margery Hill (highest point in South Yorkshire – see I was paying attention last year Phil!). The problem with that plan was that, having stopped six miles short on Tuesday night, following that route would have given me a too-short day to find somewhere discreet to wild camp, or a too-long day to get to Bamford or Hathersage. I came up with a revised plan: I would cut down the River Alport and up to Alport Castles.

That turned out to be a decision with which I was very pleased indeed. The Alport valley is incredibly pretty! And, probably thanks to there being no path marked on the map, it is also unspoilt.

I snapped quite a few photos of the loveliness!

With the lack of a path marked on the map, I had expected a yomp of a couple of miles to get myself from the Pennine Way to the trig point above Alport Castles, but when I got to the top of the valley I found there to be a narrow path all the way down the left side of the river, meaning I just had a bit of a scrabble up the steep valley-side to get up to the top of the moor just before Alport Castles.

Getting up onto the moor did, of course, give me a good view all around, and within that view was an obviously-heavy shower heading towards me. I pre-empted it by getting back into my waterproofs for the fourth time.

Well, that was one ferocious shower! For about twenty minutes I was lashed with wind-powered stinging rain and OUCH!-inducing hail. It was quite unpleasant!

Given that it was still raining when I passed the bird hide on Alport Castles, and given that I was beyond the point where I needed to turn my map over, I don’t know why I didn’t pop in for a bit of shelter. Instead I carried on, and twenty minutes later the day was (temporarily) glorious:

I took advantage of the shelter of the wall in this photo to pause for lunch. In the sun and out of the wind it was rather nice.

In contrast to a morning of solitude, things got busy again once I got down to Ladybower Reservoir, where I cut across below the impressive Derwent dam:

Couldn’t quite fit both towers on the dam into the photo!

The waterproofs did another cycle of off and on as I walked along the edge of Ladybower (and whilst the waterproofs were off, there was another period of blue-skiedness, which set off the reservoir nicely).

It was nearly enough to convince me that the walk over Derwent Edge and Hathersage Edge and then down to North Lees was a good idea, but after a bit of dithering at the path junction I concluded that I really was quite tired and that a shorter, flatter walk would be preferable. Probably the best decision as by the time I reached the end of the reservoir rain had set in that didn’t stop until after I reached the campsite at Bamford.

It was 1600, and with 20 miles walked on very little sleep I wasn’t ruling out a bit of a doze before teatime…