For the next couple of Saturdays I won't be available as myself and Donna are off 'sunning' ourselves in that well know hot-spot; Whitby. So it was the last chance for a few weeks to get a walk in with the old gentlemen that I call my friends.
The call went out to the same people who ventured up Win Hill last week, but, unfortunately Malc had a family birthday and Stu a family Covid jab appointment so just who would be available? Well we had a few changes as the original plan was to walk up Kinder which wouldn't have given Tony enough time so he wouldn't have been able to join us, however Darrell's bad knee was giving him some aggravation so the steep slopes of Kinder may have been a little too much.
So in the end I planned out a route of 7 miles which would take in the delights of the very popular Baslow Edge, and the not so frequented Birchen Edge and it meant that Tony was able to join myself, Darrell and Nigel....and of course Koko the clown, sorry I mean dog.
We all arrived at Curbar Gap car-park literally within minutes of each other at around 7:45am, and, to be honest you need to get there around that time as it does get very busy if you arrive much later than that. In fact the need to arrive early is even more pronounced now that double yellows have been painted on the narrow lane that takes you past the car-park.
The first section of the walk was just above Baslow Edge before turning east at Wellington's monument and heading for the road to cross over onto the path that takes you across the moor to Birchen Edge. I was thinking that we had missed out on seeing the Highland Cattle, but we were in luck and a handful of them were grazing at the top of Jack Flat. As always, very placid animals.
It was quite boggy in patches as we crossed to Birchen Edge, but up on the rocky outcrop the ground was dry and dusty, a sign of what the weather has been like the last few weeks. After stopping for a drink and something to eat we headed down the steep path and out to the Robin Hood pub before turning north-west back in the direction of Baslow Edge, a route that took us below the Silver Birch trees that sit below Gardoms edge and can seem so spooky when there is thick fog around.
Now the only other time I have done this same walk was with Malc a year or so ago, and yet again even though the OS Maps show a well defined path through the woods at the bottom of Jack Flat, in reality it's not the case, so we ended up going a little off piste and having to climb over walls and gates to get back to the Bar Road track that joins Baslow with the Edge a few hundred feet above it.
The last 20 minutes or so saw us take the main path back down to the car-park, as expected it was now much busier in the area with a number of climbers learning their trade on the Eagle Stone, families just enjoying the fresh air in the hope of seeing the cows, and people walking their dogs. Not the sunny morning promised, but a dry one and an enjoyable few hours of banter with good friends.
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