Wednesday 20 June 2007

Kinder

Just to have a break from ranting about obscure issues that no-one else is that bothered about, Jolan and I did a hike on Sunday. The route was claimed to be 'extreme', which in itself seems a bit extreme. It was a little steep for the first couple of miles, but 'extreme'?

Anyway, we took the bus to Hayfield, and walked onto Kinder via William Clough. Then along the edge of the Kinder plateau, past Kinder Downfall and Kinder Low, and off at Kinderlow End. It's about 10 miles and it took us 5 hours to do. We then had time to have a couple of beers in Hayfield and Stockport on the way home. The clouds were down at the start, but they lifted marginally above the plateau as we went, so there was something to see.

There was a 15-mile fell run going on while we were on top of Kinder, which I think might more fairly be described as 'extreme' than our relatively gentle ramble...

5 comments:

George said...

Nice walking Paul. These guidebooks are tricky as you never know who exactly they're aimed at. Your book seems to be for retirement home long term residents. However, I had a hiking book that described the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe as 'challenging' when clearly what it meant was 'terrifying to the very core of your soul; your trousers will be brown'. Etc.

Dr Mich said...

Just as I was about to start nagging you for pictures, you save me the trouble.

Excellent :-D

I recently purchased a book called "Walks and Easy Hikes in the Canadian Rockies". I bought it more for ideas than for the walks themselves. It's hard to know where to take people when you only have a day to spend in the mountains. I sincerely hope that no one bought the book as a serious walking book though, some of the walks are 500 m long!

Paul Wilson said...

Yeah, the walk route came from a Guardian article. Possibly it was only extreme for people who wear sandals.

To be fair, the first bit up William Clough and on to Kinder is a bit gruelling, but after that it's all flat or downhill. Then again, the steep descent off Kinderlow End is not easy on the legs. There are steps, though, so again difficult to describe as extreme.

Jolan S. said...

For an alternative view, please visit www.jolanreads.blogspot.com

Paul Wilson said...

Argh, now I seem like an ogre!

At least we can both agree that the Thwaites Original in the Sportsman was tasty stuff...