So, the first bit of travelling with attached blog. Not my first walk ever obviously... This will be a four day route, totalling 67 miles or thereabouts, mostly through the scenic Peak District National Park. I'll start in the fair city of Sheffield, renowned for its production of steel, cutlery and intelligent pop/indie music. The finishing point will be in Stoke-on-Trent, famous for its pottery.
It's not a long walk, around a quarter of the length of the Pennine Way for instance, but four days is all I have. Planning this, I had a few goals from the start - the route should be four days long, mostly in a National Park, and start and finish at places with direct train access to London with a reasonable journey time. A glance at a map of the UK shows National Parks tend to be some way from London, and in fact the only one easily accessible by train is the Peak District, which has the Midland Main Line to the East, and the West Coast Main Line to the West.
That still leaves plenty of possible options for endpoints, so I've fairly randomly picked Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent - the first 'cos my old friend Chris lives there and it is cool, the second as about the furthest South possible, so nearer to London and allowing more of a North-South traverse of the Park. Once I'd settled on the Peak District, there were a few places I wanted to include, a bit of the Pennine Bridleway, the stepping stones in Wolfcote Dale, etc. Then it just became a matter of ensuring each day was around 16 or 17 miles, with a pub halfway, and a campsite plus pub to finish. Speaking of pubs - time to get to one and meet Chris.
This means getting a train though - and I hate trains. On this occasion I get on it OK, but the ticket collection machine refuses to work, so I have no ticket... As it turns out, no Inspector arrives between London and Doncaster. I feel oddly disappointed. Changing trains at Doncaster, I manage to get the ticket - there are two references and I was using the wrong one. Obviously. But anyway... pub time!
It's not a long walk, around a quarter of the length of the Pennine Way for instance, but four days is all I have. Planning this, I had a few goals from the start - the route should be four days long, mostly in a National Park, and start and finish at places with direct train access to London with a reasonable journey time. A glance at a map of the UK shows National Parks tend to be some way from London, and in fact the only one easily accessible by train is the Peak District, which has the Midland Main Line to the East, and the West Coast Main Line to the West.
That still leaves plenty of possible options for endpoints, so I've fairly randomly picked Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent - the first 'cos my old friend Chris lives there and it is cool, the second as about the furthest South possible, so nearer to London and allowing more of a North-South traverse of the Park. Once I'd settled on the Peak District, there were a few places I wanted to include, a bit of the Pennine Bridleway, the stepping stones in Wolfcote Dale, etc. Then it just became a matter of ensuring each day was around 16 or 17 miles, with a pub halfway, and a campsite plus pub to finish. Speaking of pubs - time to get to one and meet Chris.
This means getting a train though - and I hate trains. On this occasion I get on it OK, but the ticket collection machine refuses to work, so I have no ticket... As it turns out, no Inspector arrives between London and Doncaster. I feel oddly disappointed. Changing trains at Doncaster, I manage to get the ticket - there are two references and I was using the wrong one. Obviously. But anyway... pub time!
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| Me, Chris, Austin and Claire. |
Photos to go with this post can be found here.
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