Hey guys.
Just a note before beginning again, this website is pretty clunky so to get the mobile view to look good the desktop view looks pretty poor.
I was lucky enough to be able to go on this hike not long after the last one in the Brecons.
I managed to get an early finish from work on Saturday so I headed from London just before 4pm with Jack and Sarah which meant there was a good chance of getting to camp before dark.
I have to admit, I was nervous for the drive up to the Peak District with these two because, well their choice of music is absolutely terrible :P, luckily Beyonce was played only once and the rest of it was enjoyable.
We got to Hayfield campsite just West of Manchester around 8.30pm, thankfully just before the sun set so we had time to set up our tents and have time to get to the pub we saw up the road on the way down. Result!
So this weekend was going to be different than my usual hikes as I had others to think of, which was great because it means I can plan a route that caters to all. Plus we were in civilization so it meant no wild camping and beer was available.
We head to to the pub a couple of minutes away pretty much instantly. Jack had a hard week at work and just needed a nice local northern pint, I just fancied a pint and I believe Sarah felt the same. I caught up with Sarah as I hadn't seen her since she left where I work about a month earlier and used this time to get to know Jack and Sarah a little more as I hadn't done a whole lot with them outside of work. The pints came in one after the other and we soon realised that we were the only ones left in the pub after a couple of locals waved us goodbye when they left, got to love how friendly the Northerners are! So while Jack chatted to the owners of the pub, being with his people, the Northern folk, me and Sarah thought it would be a good time to head down to camp as we felt we were keeping the owners from closing up. So we all headed down to camp a little tipsy and decided to sit in the car for a while to stay up and chat. The herbal conversation booster sure did help. We all soon headed to our own tents when we realised that most of what we were talking about was complete bollocks.
I woke up first the next day but only by about 30min before the other two. We all got our gear ready and left camp for our walk just after 11pm. The hike that was planned should have been about 13 miles and should have taken us just over 6 hours not including stops.
Kinder Reservoir was pretty much right at the beginning of the trek. The hike started really well, it was beautiful and had similarities to the Brecon Beacons in a way that a lot of the space was farm land and the main attraction was the route itself. We soon were on the William Clough trail heading to Kinder Scout. We followed a stream and sometimes went through and over it. I saved Jacks life. Well saved his life is a bit of an exaggeration, I just stopped him falling into the stream.
The weather wasn't too great, it was raining quite softly but the wind was pretty strong which made it feel as the rain was heavier than what it was. Forecast showed it would die down around 2pm so we weren't too worried. We knew our trek was a pretty easy one as we only had to ascend about 500 meters and then we'd be on top of the ridge walking on pretty flat paths the rest of the way so we took our time, took in the scenery and just tired to enjoy ourselves.
When we got on to the main Kinder Scout trail we thought we'd stop for a bit of lunch as it was about 1pm. The wind was pretty strong on the ridge so we kept going in hope to find some cover. We came across a little area that was covered in exposed rock which we believe was Sandy Heys. I was looking at the exposed rock and I could see all these scars along the rocks. I don't know much about the Peak District or Geography to be fair but I was quite fascinated by these scars which I guessed were glacial activity, so basically when the ice retreated down the valleys in the ice age it dragged stones with it and carved the shapes you see in the photo with Jack with his bag on. I believed it would be this or these rocks would have been pushed up over millennials and each "layer" would be a different time period. Please comment below of you know :).
So we sat in this little sheltered bit for about 30min having a bite to eat and just hiding from the rain and wind that was not letting up even though it was approaching 2pm. When we set off again we decided to cut the hike short, we were wet from all we had done so far and it was becoming quite unpleasant. So when we got to Kinder Downfall we decided to follow the path South instead of carrying on West. It meant we were cutting the hike by about 2 hours (4-6miles) but we were having a good day so far so best not to ruin it by doing more than we needed to.
The photo of wet me here on the left was about half a mile from Kinder Downfall. We were still able to peak at 633 meters on the southern path we took to cut the trek down by a few miles.
If I did this hike on my own like I had originally planned as I wasn't sure anyone would have been able to join me, I would have liked to believe that I would have done the original route that was planned, but I'm really glad Jack and Sarah came as it allowed me to do the hike with them in mind. I knew I was OK with the weather and although I believed they were too, I still felt like it was my responsibility to ensure that they were having a good time, so making that decision to cut the trail gave me piece of mind as well as knowing Sunday Roast was closer than ever. Did I mentioned that was the end goal?
We arrived back in camp at about 4-5pm which gave us plenty of time to change it to dry clothes and head back to, yes you guessed it the pub. We knew there was a private function in the pub that evening so we wouldn't be able to stay long but to be honest from the little sleep we had the night before as well as the weather we had in the day, we were all pretty knackered.
After we had our Sunday roast (Jack had fish and chips) and our couple of pints we headed back to camp. It was only about 7pm, what were we going to do? Jack decided to go to his tent and read. So me and Sarah went for a little walk on the paths that surrounded the campsite. We sat in the forest over looking the camp, with our friend the herbal conversation booster. It was pretty chill, we compared the areas we grew up in and Sarah shocked me with a story about her cuddly pet snake, which I never knew could be cuddly. We sat there for a while until it got darker, and started to rain again so we headed to the car and listened to some music but once again decided to head to our own tents soon after when we started to talk complete bollocks again.
We got up in the morning and headed straight back to London after one pit stop to stock up on local Northern Ale!
So just to finish. Anyone that fancies coming along to any of my hikes, please let me know and I'll be happy to have you. Please don't think that the hike will always be a long tiring trek, I'm open for suggestions and more than happy to include anything else in the weekend like mountain biking or even kayaking.
If you do decide to join me, you might be lucky enough to look like these beautiful people.
Thanks again and please check my Instagram for more photos from my previous hikes, I don't have the next trek planned yet but please feel free to facebook me or email me on brynreeshughes@hotmail.co.uk if you want to tag along.
Hwyl a Flag