Tomato wheat crunchies filled with cheese. That's what I'm talking about...!

Date: Sunday 8th June 2008
Distance: 20+kms, took 5½ hours
Location: Edale, Peak District
Conditions: Hilly
Weather: Scorchio
Participants: Pip, Nik, Wol, Gee

After a not so great night's sleep we were all up early for a nice cup of tea, bacon sarnies and porridge. I'm sure the jazz festival didn't finish at 11 o'clock as we informed it would do. They were definitely still going at midnight, only to be followed by some bloke in the opposite tent talking for hours in a Brian Blessed booming voice.

We packed up our tents and squeezed all the luggage back in the car. Seemed a bit more space this time, less food and beer cans I guess but still Wol's unfeasibly large sleeping bag taking up the rear parcel shelf. Leaving the car park at the bottom of Edale, we set off up the first ascent to Mam Tor. This got us all blowing and the legs felt a little stiff after yesterday's walk. By the time we reached the top though we had all loosened up and were admiring the views. The dizzy heights of Mam Tor must have gone to my head as I decided to give everyone a rendition of a tongue twister, and some voice projection exercises. Luckily nobody else was around.

Onwards and downwards this time heading south towards the limestone way. Time for the first snack break and a quick patch up with some zinc oxide tape before a blister could get hold of my heel. Second attempt at Delia's flapjacks and still not good. There's either too much butter in her recipe or our oven cooks too high, either way I'm not making them again. Think I'll stick to the apple cake.

At this point Phil did a quick tot up and decided we'd be finished by lunchtime at this rate so decided to include one of his now infamous detours. So off we went to some trig point in the distance, passing through a field of long grass, disused mine shafts and several sheep skulls. After 20 mins we made it to the trig point and were rewarded with 360 degree views. Quick stroll back down and we were back on to the limestone way. There seemed to be a lot more walkers around and passed a small group where by one of the woman commented that we were doing it the easy way round! Tut, how dare she, easy my @$*£!
Then we reached the slippery rocky descent into Castleton and thought that actually she was probably right. It would have been extremely hard going if we attempted this the other way round. God only knows why one girl was attempting to get up the hill in ballet pumps! Hardly the best choice of footwear, what an earth made her think they'd be suitable? Mind you she comes a sorry second compared to some of the footwear choices I have seen on walks before and the top prize must go to the Aussie guy descending 300 metres down a slippery, rocky rainforest path wearing a pair of flipflops. What was he thinking that morning as he was getting dressed - 'now let's see, there's going to be rocks, mud, steep paths, leeches, spiders and snakes. I know, I'll wear my flip flops, they'll get me through it....'

Anyway moving on from my rant about unpractical footwear, we continued through Castleton via the toilets whereby I managed to trip up a curb and went flying into the wall of the toilet block nearly knocking myself out. Luckily I had sensible boots on or I'd have broken a toe. (Can you see a theme forming here?) Through Castleton towards Hope where Phil pointed out Lose Hill where we'd be stopping for lunch. There were a few problems with this, firstly we were all starving and the hill was about another hour away (not helped by passing a sweet shop with lots of lovely fudge in the window) and secondly we seemed to be going in the opposite direction to the hill.

We managed to prize a quick pre-lunch snack stop out of Phil and then continued along the river to Hope. Crossing over and up towards our ascent of Lose Hill. I'm not sure if it was the hunger, the heat or the sheer steepness of the hill that got to us but we all struggled to get to the top. Even Gee mountain man didn't race up the hill like he normally does. My previous thoughts of 'Tut, how dare she, easy my @$*£!' reappeared at this point. We eventually made it though and found some shady trees to sit under and have our lunch. A very well earned rest.

Onwards for the last section of the walk and a packet of gummy sweets to get us through the last hour. Along the ridge from Lose Hill to Hollins Cross where the boys decided they wanted a photo taken on a balancing rock. It seemed like a good idea so I volunteered to take the photo (I had seen how precarious the rock looked). A few photos later of 3 men looking very nervous and we were on on way down the side of Mam Tor and back to the car park. 20kms in about 5 hr 30 so not bad at all considering the terrain, hills and the energy sapping heat.

The journey back took a bit longer than on the way up so we amused oursleves with 2 hours of the name game. There were some themes forming and basically if we disallowed footballers, most other sports stars, comedies from 1970's (all of The Goodies made an appearance) and political figures between the years 1960 to 2000 we wouldn't have been able to come up with any answers. Gee eventually won the game but a big apology goes to Wol for not letting him have Dom Perignon, which we unfairly disallowed. By the way Phil, Wolf Blass is actually a real name....

Nik