What was supposed to happen?
I had it all planned, travel to Edale by train, from Chorley, where I was living at the time, changing at Manchester Victoria.
I was going to travel down Friday night, camp and be fresh for an early start.
in the morning i would have breakfast and take my time heading to Crowden – I would have nothing to do there except put up my tent, eat and sleep….
What did actually happen?
I got caught late at work I decided to head down on the Saturday the morning.
The train from Chorley was late, meaning I missed the train to Edale. I then had a 1 hour wait for the next, which I missed because there was a platform change and none of us waiting heard it because the PA was so poor! This was going to mean another hour to catch the next train. This would mean after walking into Edale, I would be starting my walk from Edale around midday. This wasn’t sensible, I’d not walked the route before but I knew it was tough and would take as much as 9 hours.
I could not delay the walk by a day as I had made plans to meet people along the way and besides I needed to get back to work at the end of it. So what to do?
I had a chat with the ticket office about how I might get near to Crowden, and walk from there. I was in luck, i could catch a train to Hadfield and walk past Bottoms Reservoir, Valehouse Reservoir, Rhodeswood Reservoir and Torside Reservoir. This was approx. 5 miles of walking on dismantled railway lines and pine forest footpaths, should you ever find yourself in the same situation, its worth considering!
This was just 3 miles shorter, even if it was much easier ground. I would have to go back and complete day 1 at a later date.
I have to admit i do regret though that I had not completed the full official route in one go, but this Day 1 issue was only part of the bits i missed… read on to find more!
