After a 2 hr drive Saturday morning, I arrived at Little Hayfield meeting up with Graham, Debi, Jacob, Russ, Dawn and of course Lilly at 8:20am in the caravan site they were staying at. (unfortunately Richard couldn't make it due to illness).
It was a little drizzly but no ponchos were needed. Graham Smith's birthday weekend party set off around 08:30 for the first part of the walk of Kinder Scout, which took us up Middle Moor, and a hill Russ & I were not expecting to be as draining as we thought it would. (the long incline was the killer, not the steepness). We were then heading for Snake Path which runs parallel to "The Edge" of Kinder Scout. Before we hit Snake Path though we had a challenging adventure scrambling and criss-crossing up Hollingworth Clough which was lovely with Herron taking off up the ravine and the peaks in the background. This did also involve myself having a little "dip" in the water when crossing over on some slippery rocks (only my right foot went in) lol , and was very happy that the walking boots did the trick and kept my feet dry. We then had a 12' waterfall to tackle, which from looking at you wouldn't think anything of it......until going up the side of it with only soft peat to support you and heather to grab hold of! I actually thought my little dip earlier was going to become a bit more than a dip! Lilly was having great fun leaping from side to side.....along with Debi and Jacob. Once we had climbed up the ravine we headed for snakes path, which wasn't the easiest of walks through the thick heather of Mill Hill.
Snake path was a breathtaking walking with the presence of "The Edge" right next to you and Ashop Clough below you. The path started off on some paving slabs, laid down to help you across the very soft and boggy peat (can't imagine what it would be like if we have had more rain this year). It then narrowed to a single, rocky path above Ashop Clough and the further you went along the more the gorge shaped, and again the views were unbelievable(even on a cloudy day). The weather was holding off, and despite weather reports telling us of rain, we didn't get a drop, you could even see the sun trying to pop its head out.
The walk along Snakes Path ended at some woods and through the woods somewhere was The Snake Pass Inn, a very welcoming site to all.
After the half hr or so pit stop at the pub we ventured down to the beginning of wood moor where we stopped and had some Lunch by Fair brook. With the climb we were about to encounter the food/energy was definitely needed, but Russ, Jacob and myself were not realising the severity of it at the time. The further we went up the steeper it got and it was tough going for us all. (the pictures really don't give it justice) Once at the top though, again the High Peaks and surrounding views certainly made all the hard work very much worth it.
We were almost now on the home stretch for Edale, our halfway stop over for the weekend. This bought us round Blackden Moor, and by now the wind had really picked up, so made it a little more challenging going along the very edge at about 500m up.
Once on the home stretch for our first day we were coming down Ringing Roger and The Nab which was just stunning. We managed to get a view of where we would be walking the following morning, noticing that, a decent nights sleep would be very much needed. Before that though we had one last decent into Edale, and for anyone (inc myself before this walk) thinks that downhill is easy......well you will be in for a shock :-) By the time we got the bottom of the decent and onto a flatter part knees were shaking.... literally, this from burning off more calories than we had taken in. Edale is a very pretty village with all the houses built from stone and some fantastic scenery engulfing the village.
So end of day one, and what a day it was. Challenging, beautiful, intimidating, fun and tiring, but most of all it was thoroughly enjoyable. Everyone had now pitched their tents (some with improvisation) and had a bit of a power nap before the well deserved trip to the pub for some food and drink...once I eventually realised that there WAS actually more than 1 pub in this tiny little village after having to split from the group for a few mins :-D
I hope I haven't bored you all too much, but I couldn't just say "We all went to walk Kinder Scout had a great time, but shattered" The peak district just has so much to offer.
Pictures and Day 2 will follow soon
All the best
Andrew x
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