Pennine Way 2000 : Day 1 : Edale to Crowden

The Old Nags Head.

First of all an editorial note.  I'm posting this series of blog entries in September 2021, however the trip described, along the Pennine Way through northern England and into Scotland, took place over 20 years ago.  I did write a short description of each day's events, already using the 'mostly in the present' style typical of this blog, and most of the text in these posts will be as I wrote back then, perhaps with the odd typo removed.   Originally I had the photos hosted on a web server running in my flat, and the pages each had all the photos for that day on them.  I'm going to try to duplicate that, so these posts will have a lot of photos, for this reason they will be smaller than usual.  Again as usual there will be a link to the larger photos at the bottom of each page.

Two already looking doubtful.

While I am editorialising... I'm going to edit the post date so these show as way back in 2000 (did Blogger even exist then?).  So this will probably show as my earliest post.  In fact however my first blog post is here.

In late august 2000, four young (well, youngish) men set out on an epic journey. With no idea of how unfit we were for the task in hand, Alex Tylee-Birdsall, Austin Jones, Chris Bragg and I set out to walk the Pennine way in two weeks, carrying our tents and camping every night. This is our story...

We Must be Mad

And one more for luck...

The 'holiday' begins with a train journey from Sheffield to Edale, during which we peer out at the rain pouring down and tell each other that it will stop before we arrive.  It doesn't.  Pulling on our waterproofs we set out, passing the official start at the Old Nags Head (P1, P2 & P3) after half a mile or so.

Another mile or so out into the open fields, and Chris is already feeling the strain - we manage to persuade him to continue.  The rest aren't much happier, although we do meet some friendly sheep (P4 & P5).

Well he is Welsh.

Before long we reach Jacob's Ladder, and it sinks in that this isn't going to be quite as easy as we thought... we are doing little better than 1 mile an hour, and the Ladder seems very steep.  From here the way leads on through some increasingly lifeless terrain (P6), and on over open moorland.

It becomes more and more clear that Chris isn't going to make it, and a little after lunch he decides he can go no further.  We unload some of the food on him and he makes his way back to Sheffield by bus and taxi.  The remaining three manage a better pace at first, but after the ascent of Bleaklow fatigue starts to set in.  I manage to stave off physical collapse only by eating some of the sugar we brought for Austin's tea.  We finally roll into Crowden at around 7.30, where we find that the disposable barbeque we brought is a little past its sell-by date.  Alex has the good sense to fry some steaks for himself, but I am so exhausted that I turn in having only eaten some mars bars and a few chips.

Maybe we could use them as pack animals?

Bleak up here.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.