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Published: April 30th 2008
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Our big day is here! Edale, Derbyshire
It was lovely to be back in Derbyshire again not only because it was the start of an epic journey, but because Derbyshire was where we did our first ever hike together over 8 years ago. Sunday 27 April - Due to the sheer thrill of the adventure ahead of us, we awoke prior to our alarm going off at 6.15am. Breakfast was not until 8am - so this gave ample opportunity to read 'again' about our first exciting day on the Pennine Way. We had contemplated carrying 'everything' ourselves for the three weeks, but after our experiences of doing this on long distance hikes in New Zealand and Chile, we decided to let 'car' power take our bags up the Pennine Way...so that we could use all of our 'leg' power to take ourselves up to Scotland. Breakfast was very good - we particularly enjoyed the Derbyshire oatcakes - they went down an absolute treat! After a satisfying breakfast, we most definitely had the fuel we needed to drive us the 16 miles along the day's route.
After saying our goodbyes to Edale House and our car for three weeks, we left the B&B to start our adventure. It seemed so surreal that after so many months of planning, excited discussions, pouring over maps, reading of books...our hiking boots were on and the time had finally arrived to start our 'long' walk to Scotland (gulp!).
For the first time the enormity of the hike slowly started to hit home, but the excitement continued to grow and grow...well until we read Wainwright's account of the Pennine Way, 'make no mistake: you are going to suffer, you are going to get wet through, you are going to feel miserable and wish you had never heard of the Pennine Way.'
We thought cheers Mr Wainwright, that's very reassuring! Great! Well he was right about getting wet, as soon as we stepped out of the door we were greeted with heavy rain. Within forty-five minutes into the Pennine Way...'splat', someone slipped over in the mud, in her new walking jacket - yes, it was Lavinia! Other walkers tried to hide their amusement as they went past (poor Lav), but Lavinia as gracefully as possible picked herself up out of the mud - there was mud on her jacket, on her hands, on her trousers, even on her face! Not a good start - but there were no injuries, so all was well.
The route started out gently meandering past lush green pastures. Luckily after about an hour, the rain abated and we were left with a cool
air, which was just as well because we had to tackle the steep yet impressive zig-zag path up Jacob's Ladder into the mountains. After this steep climb we were greeted with open moorland which eventually led to Kinder Downfall - at times it seemed like we were walking in a lunar landscape and some of the rock formations were visually artistic. Reaching Snake Road on the A57, was a reminder that despite all of the lonely moorland we had encountered civilisation was just about still in our grasp. However civilisation was again quickly lost as we headed to Bleakflow Head (the name says it all) and beyond. The area is basically peaty bog! In fact lots of peaty bog which all looked the same - we realised that it was very easy to lose your bearings as their were small paths and footprints going off everywhere! Luckily with Steve's trusty map navigational and compass reading skills we were able to find our way to our first night's accommodation safely. However, we were later told that the area is notorious for people becoming lost and the first day on the Pennine Way is known to be one of the worst sections;
sadly some people dislike their first day on the Pennine Way so much that they give up and never make it past day one. In the late afternoon we heard the rumble of thunder and decided to quicken our pace to reach Crowden asap.
After an eight hour day we were 'very' relieved to see our B&B and take the weight of our feet. Our B&B hosts advised that two poor men the previous week had become so lost that it took them from 8am until midnight to finish the first day - a gruelling 16 hour day! We bet they were over the moon to see the B&B! After a hearty meal and exchanging stories with a man from Yorkshire walking the Pennine Way there and back and meeting two fun loving women from Holland, we retired to our room to discuss our first challenging day on the Pennine Way and our expectations for the days to follow... 252 miles to go! (Videos to follow shortly)
If you would like to donate towards our fundraising effort, please go to www.ectopic.org.uk/fundraising/?p=46 Thank you very much for your support in helping us to raise money for the Ectopic Pregnancy
Trust. Lavinia and Steve
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Ellen
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fun loving women
Hi, We,Ellen and Astrid, the fun loving women from holland are wishing you all the best for the coming weeks. We are going to follow you online. Keep the thumps up.