The Pennine Way

Hi all

I am in Holmfirth, a small pleasent village south of Hurddesfiled.

Hey Julien, you were right, the cows love me!!! ;)

After leaving the library in Buxton I found a B&B in the town centre. The owner, Sandra, invited me for a nice meal. Lamb... MMMmmmm!!! After the shower went shopping and looked for a pub to have the usual pints, and update my diary. It was saturday, so the atmosphere would not suit a guy wearing sandals and a dirty trekking trouser. Found a quite pub and went to bed early.

On the saturday I had planned a short walk, it took 4 hours evntually, to the youth hostel in Edale. In the begining on the day it kept on raining, and it was quite windy too. Before leaving Buxton, posted some maps "home" (thank you Elena and Julien) and bought some more. I met a guy that not only knew Asturias but also knew that it never was conquered by the moros. Remarkable!!

Me, near Edale, with the Mam Tor at the back.

The walk began in the main road leaving Buston. The rain stopped soon and by the time I took the secondary road through a valley parallel to the Edale one, I could see some blue patches in the sky. The hills in this area are mainly big fields with sheeps.


Edale valley from the top of the Mam Tor

I left the road to climb the Mam Tor on an easy path, and had to remove the banner from my rucksack as it was very very windy. The Edale valley looked like a beautiful place from the top of the Tor, and from there I could see the hostel and a few camppings; I descended in no more than and hour and reached the hostel at 4 pm. The place is very beautiful, and there is a lot to do, including rock cllimbing and other adventure activities.

The view from my room in the Edale hostel.

I had a huge lunch, cleaned the camera and lenses and, obviously, headed to the pub in Edale village. Nice path 30 minutes walk, in sandals. The pub is the Nag's Head, that is the official start for the Pennine Way. Awsome, lovely place; huge too. The atmosphere on that saturday night was amazing. People singing, and local juices flowing.... I went for the Nag ale, of course. I met a few people. Ernei, from York, we are supossed to meet again in Harrogate, for tea a cakes, in Betty's. As I said the night was great and I had a "few" of Nag. I walked back to the hostel with Ernei, a former military, that had no problem with orientation in pitch black night. So, he found the way to the hostel, but had a few problems with my sandals, and the path condition. See the picture below...

The stuff in the left foot is mud. What I have in the right one I was pretty sure it was sheep shit...

The night was fun, the next morning wasn't... tipically. Headache, I wish I would not exist.... After the shower, and a proper breakfast I was ready to take on the Pennine way from the Nag's Head. At last, the sun was shining, and there were just a few clouds.

Edale village from the end of the footpath

Before continuing, I would like to tell you that the Edale valley has become my favourite place of the walk so far. The perfect walking holliday spot. Worth checking and coming.

The awsome Nag's Head

The plan for the day was reaching Holmfirth on sunday evening. I would follow the Pennine way mainly but I would also took a few shortcuts. The first one would be just climbing strainght the north hills of the valley, where I met some walkers and a couple of fell runners.

Hard work

After the climb I would follow the ridge until a stream that would take me North and northwest to reach finally the Pennine way in another ridge facing west. The plan did not quite worked as i got lost when I could not find the path by the stream. The place was a flat muddy and wet moor, but although quite wet, the mud in the place was strangly firm and compact, so it wasn't too bad. This Orienteering champion finally found his way and I began waking the P. way

Hey Jose, I spoke to you on the phone, just in this spot!!

I followed the way with the city of Manchester in the distance. The scenary was mainly moorland and I was impressed with some very long parts of the way that were paved with very big flat stones.

The pennine highway

The way finally reaches a stream that transformed into a huge gully that went down to a reservoir in Crowden where I stayed. I understimated distances and took me 8 and a half hours to reach Crowden. The camping was all right and had my first experince with midges, those tiny buggers form hell!. It was just 15 minutes while I was eating and almost got me mad. I am defenetly getting a repelant! I should also mentioned that on sunday had my first day of walking without any soreness due to blisters. Good!!

Pennine moorland

Today monday, I made the rest of the walk to Holmfirth. It did not rain yet, but it is quite a gloomy oveercast day. The walked was more of the same moorland, and took me four hours to reach the village. I still have to have a look a t the maps to decide where I will stay today, but I think I'll head to a camping 30 minutes walk form here, north of the village.

I think I'll be in Harrogate on Wednesday where I will rest for a day before meeting Will, Paco and Djeison in Ripon.

Everything going very well, thank you very much for reading me.

All the best.

Carlos