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Day 1
Links on Walking Places
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Heather Gant's
Pennine Way Diary Day 1 |
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Wednesday 3rd May 2006 A really excellent start to our walk. The day dawned sunny and warm and after a breakfast of Peter’s lovely porridge we were into the taxi and off to Edale and on to the Pennine Way hoping that all the planning was OK. We all weighed our rucksacks on Nicks scales at Calver and we were all carrying approx. 10 kg. It was 9.00 am as we arrived at the Nags Head pub and we had our obligatory photo shoot and then we were on our way. Jacobs Ladder was climbed with ease although we had to have a snack stop at the top. Very few people about but we did have a chat with a television reporter from Canada who was covering the Para games in Manchester. We then carried on to Edale Rocks and Kinder Downfall.
At Mill Hill we had our first meeting with a fellow Pennine Way walker. His name was John from Manchester who hoped to complete the walk in 17 days. He was staying at Old House that night so we were destined to meet again. We had our picnic lunch lazing in the sunshine just below Mill Hill and then set out across the flagstones of Featherbed Moss toward the A57 crossing. Although the flagstones are not to everyone’s taste they do prevent people becoming stuck in the infamous peat bogs.
Bleaklow Head cairn was reached without a problem and on such a lovely day did not look broody or threatening. Soon after we had our first view of Longdendale with its string of reservoirs with a straightforward descent around Torside Clough. Old House was a successful B and B with a welcome cup of tea on arrival. A comfortable room with en-suite bath. The chap from Old House gave us all a lift to the Peel Arms for our evening meal which was delicious and Peter J. was very impressed with the real ale and the price of a pint up north, We had a good chat with John and as a local taxi could not take 5 people the landlord loaded us all into his people carrier and transported us back home. A perfect end to the day. In bed by 10 pm.
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