I left it to SWMBO to pick a walk from the many route books we've accumulated covering the Derbyshire Peak District, which can often be a bad move, as she prefers walks that take us through villages etc, and I prefer to get as high up and away from civilisation as we can manage!
So when she picked a route that involved Kinder Scout last night, I was very pleased
There's some info about Kinder Scout
here but Kinder is essentially a large plateau situated in the Dark High Peak District. Dark, because of the peaty soil found there (as opposed to the White Peaks where there's more granite and limestone).
Kinder Scout is really a moor, but is only accessible via some very old, often quite treacherous paths, so only the intrepid (or stupid) tend to venture up there and consequently, it's about as secluded a place as I know. Today, we only passed maybe 10 other walkers / couples and a Peak District Ranger who we chatted with for a few minutes - he knew rather a lot about the area - very useful bloke!
So, we started at couple of hundred feet elevation, parked at Bowden Bridge car park, and set off along a tarmac lane towards Kinder Reservoir.
I spotted a Heron preening itself in the Kinder River as we walked along:
After a while, the guide book directed us up a very steep cobbled lane, that was hard work, but looking back, the views started to reveal themselves, bit by bit:
After climbing for a couple of hundred feet, the reservoir and it's impressive earth dam came into view (Fiona pictured taking a breather):
No sooner did we get a good view of the water and dam though, the route took us up a further steep climb away from Kinder Reservoir up a hill. First drink break required, and a good excuse to snap the Pygmy Falcon whilst I was at it
After a while, a look back shows some rewards for the effort:
On much higher ground now, (about 1,000 ft maybe) we began to skirt the reservoir. The picture below shows the Kinder River entering the reservoir, and what I assume is a build up of peat washed down from Kinder Scout above.
With the reservoir many hundreds of feet below us, Fiona poses with our destined path behind her (to the left), before setting off on the next steep climb up to Kinder Scout.
Before long, we reached a stream, which we must follow. The valley is known as William Clough and offered many beautiful photo opportunities and places to rest / drink.
On reaching the head of the stream, we find that there is one short but vicious last climb to make before we reach the plateau, I took this one before making the ascent (no pictures during the ascent due to a very difficult climb)!
On top of Kinder Scout, the wind was fierce and it was time to dig out the thermal tops. Fiona couldn't resist climbing onto one of the many oddly shaped rock formations that epitomise Kinder Scout, I caught her in the act here.
A couple of the many rocky outcrops to be found on the edge of Kinder:
One wall of Kinder Downfall, the gulley where the Kinder River leaves the plateau and heads for the reservoir below. We were at 2020 feet at this point.
The lunar like landscape of Kinder Low - the most inappropriately named part of Kinder Scout - being about as high as you can get!
And sadly, this is the last photograph I took, as the battery in my camera died shortly afterwards (doh). At least it's a nice one. with Fiona standing by one of the dozens of cairns we passed today (and probably the biggest I've seen in the Peaks on reflection)!
Although the walk wasn't that long (9.2 miles) it was certainly the most challenging I've done so far, with the descent on very poor paths with loose rubble making it slow and painful going. But, I'll have forgotten that by tomorrow, and will hang on to the memories of the views and sense of solitude.
Kinder Scout is a bloody brilliant place
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