Saturday June 27
Kinder Scout is my favourite hill in the peak, so back again - this time to explore the western side and northern edges. The plan is to ascend Grindsbrook, cross to the Downfall, then over to Fairbrook Naze, traverse Blackden Edge and return via Golden Clough. It's going to be an energy-sapping one today, with a hazy sun that makes the atmosphere sticky and airless. A weary looking couple come by near the bottom of the gentle walk-in. The guy, looking back to the hill, says 'I wouldn't bother mate' and we laugh when I say I've got 10 miles planned. It's one of those days when you enjoy the crack with strangers and I have a lot of it because the whole route up is peppered with walkers. I drink at least a litre of water on the way up and most of it seems to sweat straight back out so my ultra lightweight shirt and trousers are soaked by the time I take a coffee break at the top and enjoy the views.
I'm sometimes amazed at how ill-prepared some folk are in these hills. I've seen a family, wearing trainers and sandals, perilously scrambling down earlier - the overweight woman complaining in an American twang 'I'm kind of scared of heights and I need shoes with better grip' as her Birkenstocks slip on the arid scree. No shit missus. I feel like pointing her to the Edale Mountain Rescue website for stories of similar stupidities that lead to people like her regularly being stretchered off or airlifted with compound fractures and worse.
At the top a young student couple ask me the way to Kinder Downfall. They have no map and although they say they have a compass, it's never produced. Unless the guy means his iPhone's built in version, which is apparently low on battery anyway. They look at my map and I urge them to write down the compass bearings they'll need. They don't. I suggest they walk with me, or just keep me in sight, but they don't take me up on the offer. I'm tired. I want to chill with a fag and my drink and I'm not paying close enough attention to the landscape when I inadvertantly send them off up the wrong path. Later when I realise my error, I feel a bit guilty. The poor buggers have wandered off toward Edale Head but at least it's an easy route down to the village from there. They'll be safe enough. And as I head across toward the Downfall I realise they would have struggled to find it in this landscape anyway.
It's teatime when I reach Kinder Downfall and drink in the view with Kinder Reservoir sparkling far away in the evening sun.
My 2 litres of water are all gone now and there's another 6 miles to go. Now it's going to be all about the rocks. Big rocks. Weird shapes and wide vistas.
Time to strike out across open moorland again to take in the beauty of Fairbrook Naze, explore Seal Edge and eventually Blackden Edge.
There are no walkers around these parts. It's off the beaten track now and most people are probably back at one of Edale's typical walkers' pubs anyway. It's quiet, apart from some peculiarly haunting bird calls.
It may be a tired old cliche but, to me, the rocks are alive in some way. Endlessly battered into shape by wind, rain and the freeze/thaw of millions of winters. I sometimes fancy that I can sense the people who once lived up here among them. In the days when it was all dense forest. That vibe is part of the magic of Kinder. Everything about it gives me a feeling of groundedness and connection with all that is bigger than my own petty everyday concerns. They were always here and, unlike me, they always will be.
It's 9:15 by the time I've descended Golden Clough and reached the Rambler Inn, with 11.5 miles showing on the GPS. I feel strangely fresh and the pint of iced coke I down in the beer garden has got to be the finest liquid to pass my lips this year.
Track recorded by GPS - 11.5 miles, starting from Edale.