Crowden to Edale – Bleaklow and Kinder Scout – Home

The campsite was miles from anywhere so it was an early night. However the manager used to be a chef so I got Chicken Jalfrezi for dinner for a fiver (good unall) and two sausage and egg bread cakes for breakfast for four quid. Brilliant. 

Today’s walk was to be a tough 2,600 foot climb over Bleaklow and Kinder covering 16 miles. I needed an early start and got away at 8.30, breakfasted and packed. 

The tent was dry and there was a cool breeze, a welcome addition for a steep climb out of the valley. Looking back across the reservoir to Crowden the moors, and Black Hill in the background, were great.

The track was extremely steep for the first 400 feet climb and the rucksack dug into my shoulders, but I felt ok. Slow, deliberate steps and as I’d lost a few kilos from my fat belly and was much fitter than when I started it wasn’t too hard. And going up Bleaklow, one of the legendary High Peak places when I was young, was coming home. I can’t help but think  of the poor buggers in planes that crashed into Bleaklow and Kinder when I’m walking these tops. There are over 100 crash sites up here. Incredible loss of life during and shortly after WWII. Poor kids. Thirteen young American lads in a Superfortress lost in fog. A Halifax bomber killing five kids, and amazingly two survived. Lumps of undercarriage and engine parts can still be seen. 

Bleaklow is a flat peak, with a nominal summit of a cairn with a wooden stake sticking out of it. Wild and windy.

Over the far side the PW runs down a winding brook which cuts through four metres of peat bogs. All this was forested until Stone Age man cut down the trees and the vegetation started to rot and create peat. The sun came out to welcome me back.

And Kinder smiled in the distance, beyond the cars parked at the top of the Snake Pass. It all looks so innocuous in the sun. But this place can be deadly. Lest we forget.

By early afternoon I was climbing up a Kinder with its trademark rock formations. Showers were scooting across the sky, and I was lucky to just catch a few spots of rain at the edges.

At last, after early three weeks, the first views of the Edale valley.

The Way drops steeply down Jacob’s Ladder and gives views back up to the ridge around the Kinder Scout plateau. God I love this country. It’s part of my fabric. My mum’s ashes are a few miles away in the Peak District and she’ll be happy to rest there. She deserves it, after living with that arsehole for so long.

From dramatic moorland to domestic vale, the last mile or two are enchanting.

It’s over. The Pennine Way has taken me closer to my end goal, completing the long trail from the northern tip of the British Mainland to the southern tip of the European Mainland. 278 miles in 20 days walking. 

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