Bogs fallen into: 1, no injuries sustained
Car disasters: 2 – lost car and reversal into boulder
This morning I was quite a bit more organised than yesterday – I had chatted up another fellow camper last night, so my car was parked at Standedge just after nine and I was given a lift back to Crowden to start walking at 10.00 am. I’ve walked today with quite a few couples – and we’ve been catching up and overtaking each other all day. It’s been really sociable.
From Crowden, I immediately had a climb up to Laddow Rocks – a lovely path with lots of rock hopping and fording streams. I walked initially with Paul from Darlington and Andy from Wigan, who had started the Pennine Way nine years ago, although only Andy had finished it after Paul retired on day one with an injury – a likely story! So Andy has been nagging Paul ever since to have another go.
They sat down a lot though – even by my standards! So I pushed on to the top of the hill where I met two girls that I’d seen yesterday. They’d had a trauma and got lost in the peat bogs for three hours so had to call the Ranger out. Because they then had so much time to make up, they stopped at the A57 Snake Pass and got a taxi the rest of the way.
The path along the Crowden Brook was very well defined until I had to ford the stream and then it was a giant quagmire. Panic set in – as usual – where was the blinking path? As I was scratching my head and cursing, I could see Paul and Andy coming along so I strategically looked lost (not difficult!) and helpless (ditto!) and they then looked after me and got me through the bog – not without me having another dousing though. (But as they walked a bit ahead of me, I was spared my blushes – they didn’t see a thing!)
The path to the trig point at Black Hill was laid out again with stone slabs – according to my guide book, before the stone slab there was “doom and despondency” where now there is “cheery enthusiasm” – how lovely! I must admit the peat bogs were putting me off walking initially – there’s so much of it. At the trig point there’s a 200 metre stretch of this soggy black ugliness, with slabs leading you through. Yuk!
The path down to the A635 was a joy to walk, indeed as the rest of the day was. Really well signposted along various reservoirs - Wessenden Head, Wessenden, Swellands and Black Moss, where the path came down the hill to Standedge and the A62 where I was parked. Except I wasn’t ….. when we’d left the car this morning we assumed, incorrectly, that the huge layby was the actual car park for the Pennine Way. Wrong! So I had a quick fifteen minute march along the A62 towards Marsden to find my car. Then back to Crowden campsite for tent building, shower and tea – a three course extravaganza – fish soup, pasta in a cheese and tomato sauce and a cup of tea and shortbread biscuits. How civilised!
Oh, and I finally opened all my birthday cards and presents – thank you everyone!
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