The earlier I go to bed the later I seem to wake up the next morning; there must be some complicated and counterintuitive reason or mathematical formula to explain this which if I knew about it I probably could take advantage of it to optimise my sleeping patterns.
I went to bed at 9:50 last night, that's quite early for me, but woke up at 6;20 this morning - about half an hour later than I normally do. Even though I had everything ready to go, my clothes piled up at the top of the stairs with everything I'd need already inside the zipped pockets of my fleece, my map already folded and inside the mapcase, my boots selected and my food and drink and all my other provisions in my rucksack I still didn't reach the railway station until 06:55...and then the first train going to Sheffield was delayed.
So...I ended up arriving at Castleton an hour later than planned: after a quick visit to the toilets I walked along Hollowford Road towards Hollins Cross, the lowest point on the Great Ridge. I then immediately descended to Edale.
The church at Edale was open today.
I walked along the first two miles or so of the Pennine Way to Upper Booth and then looped back to the south east towards Barber Booth.
There would have been some more nice scenery to photograph as I was heading for Barber Booth but it really was quite misty and it was drizzling a bit. Something interesting I noticed though was several small painted concrete pyramids that had been placed at the side of the footpath all the way to the Methodist Chapel at Barber Booth as part of an installation art project. I got down low to take some photographs of them, trying to feature them in a landscape shot...all I got was sore knees though.
The weather brightened up as I climbed up Harden Clough towards Mam Nick, completing my second crossing of the Great Ridge of the day.
On the way back down to Castleton I called in at the shop at the Blue John Cavern and bought a butterscotch flavoured ice cream. It was delicious and refreshing but would not have been my first choice if there'd been more flavours to choose from.
I arrived at Castleton with enough time to continue on to Hope, taking the footpath that goes alongside the river.
I caught the bus that goes from Hope Valley College [at Hope] to Knowles Lane at Whirlow where the service terminates and we have to get off - there are plenty of other buses going the rest of the way into the city centre though...although it is a bit annoying.
On the train coming back to Doncaster from Sheffield I was standing in the vestibule area right next to a man who was reading his own article in The Geographical Magazine. I decided not to disturb him by telling him that I recognised his face from the thumbnail photograph at the top of the page - he might have thought I was being nosey or rude.
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