A nice early 4pm finish at work, the boot crammed with everyone’s kitchen sink, I mean luggage, and we were off. Richard, Stuart and me went in the back of Warren’s car with Shaun and Warren in the front. Tony needed to leave the Peak District earlier than everyone else so he also drove and took Scott with him.
We arrived at the Edale YHA three hours later thanks to a cocktail of navigational skills involving Richard in the back with a traditional map, Shaun reading a ‘Google map’ from his iphone and Warren using the Sat Nav. There aren’t many occasions where I feel the need to keep my mouth shut, but the subject of map reading is most definitely one of them.
The Hostel looked amazing, tucked away on the top of a hill surrounded by outstanding views. A very good find Warren! We checked into our dorm, made our bunk beds and went for dinner in the Hostel dining room with no less than chocolate orange cheesecake for pudding- they must have known I was coming!
Of course, the natural progression from dinner was the pub. We had a nice cross country walk to the pub which involved the first fall of the weekend by Shaun. We would have got to the pub slightly more promptly had I not failed to mention the fact I had a map in my bag! Well…no one asked if I had a map!
We had a few drinks, but everyone was keen to stay compos mentis in view of the walk Warren had planned for us the following day. We returned to the hostel, had a few games of pool and table football in their play room and then off to bed we went; at which point Scott realised he had forgotten his toothbrush and towel; he was able to hire a towel, but spent the next few days cleaning his teeth with his finger!
Our first night was a success; no major snoring, or in fact anything else I had prepared myself for! We were up, washed, dressed, fed and ready for action by 9am and we were off.
Warren had planned a 16 miles walk, but despite having the route mapped out, no one really knew quite what to expect!
We all started off very keen, the weather was great, blue skies sunshine and light winds for the whole day. We quickly made progress to Edale and the first of our challenges which was a steep climb of 2 miles to take us up on to Kinder Scout plateau, this soon made everyone realise that this was going to be a fun day! Once up on Kinder Scout we admired the views before realising that we had to navigate our way through several miles of peat bogs which had gullies of 2ft-10ft in depth. We attempted the challenge of jumping across or into the bogs, but it was inevitable that something had to happen and it did; first was Scott jumping a section then falling backwards and laying flat in a nice bog and then funniest of all was Shaun, who after ignoring our advice strayed off the path and then found himself stuck waist deep in the peat bog, after we all nearly wet ourselves, Tony finally pulled Shaun out, looking back on it this was a very dangerous situation, but we survived the BOG!
From here we progressed along the peaks, had lunch with some weird rock climbing sheep that wanted our lunch. We hit some very steep downhill sections for 4-5miles which really took it out of everyone, this then took us down to a fantastic looking reservoir where we had aimed to take a dip, but it was all fenced off. We took a break and this is where I made some verbal mistakes, 1: It flattens out from hear guys! 2: Oh! We’re only half way but don’t tell Shaun!
The next half was tough for everyone, as we’d realised the route had now jumped to 19 miles, and we were hit with some very tough up hill walks on loose terrain, at this point Shaun hit the WALL!! But we all helped to pick up his motivation and keep going, but he did bloody moan some what!.
With the sun showing no mercy we got totally baked and got close to running out of fluids, but after experiencing Jacobs Ladder (very steep downhill section) and our thighs nearly popping, we came across this vision of a flowing stream and waterfalls, so the lads soon stripped off and were in, it was bloody freezin’ but very re-freshing and this is what we needed. So now we were all off again, blisters were coming but that wasn’t stopping any of us! The Magners and food were beckoning and after some nine and half hours walking we arrived back in Edale at the pub, where we all shared that feeling of achievement of what we’d just done together over several drinks and laughing at different moments that happened in the day!
Mind you we still had to walk another mile back to the YHA in the dark!
Thanks to you all for an excellent weekend!
Quotes of the day: “We’re all gonna f**kin’ die out here!”
By Shaun
“You’re lost aren’t you, you don’t know where the f**k your going!”
By Shaun
“It gets flatter and easier from now on guys!”
By Warren
Scenes of the day: “Shaun ‘talcum powdering’ up naked by a river in front of a seated Scott”
Words by: Kerry & Warren
