[ Any resemblances to real people is purely intentional..]
Twenty five to seven outside the Mitre and both minibuses are already there. Everyone who signed up at the squash for the trip has arrived looking bleary eyed and we are ready to go. Everyone that is, except for our safety officer, who is bringing all the club equipment. Not an auspicious start. Twenty five minutes later we have dragged Mr. "My alarm didn't go off" Stevenson out of bed and we are on our way. In just under three hours (including a scenic detour) we have arrived and are ready for the first club trip of the year, to Edale in the Peak District.
As the first trip of the year, Edale is a trip where the walking is easier than that in the Lakes or Snowdonia for example, but the navigation is correspondingly harder. Groups were split into five or six people, each containing several new members and an experienced(?) leader. As the groups were decided I realised that I had ticked off Dave Jones' name from the register but he hadn't arrived at the Mitre - sorry Dave! After much faffing in the traditional club style, we were off! Four of the five groups led by Toby, James, Mark and myself decided to walk up to the Kinder plateau and wander around for a bit in the mist and Paul went off on the other side of the valley somewhere. As we ascended the weather changed from a dank horrible fog to a "can I see my hand in front of me?" pea-souper. Once at the top of Grind's Brook we attempted to walk to Kinder Downfall by cutting straight across the plateau. Half an hour later, we were feeling thoroughly navigationally challenged. After asking a random bloke walking his dog if he knew where we were: "I don't know, I don't have a map", we found James who pin pointed our position for us.
The landscape on top of the plateau was really bizarre, like the set from a cheap science fiction film. Barren black mounds of peat speckled with white grit and little or no vegetation, disappearing into the grey murk, made it look like the surface of the moon. Having never been to the Peak District before Kinder Downfall was somewhat less impressive than I expected, more of a trickle than a gush, and the triangulation pillar at Kinder Low was the only other high point (sorry) on the walk. The descent via Jacob's Ladder provided the only views of any description during the day and I hope that not too many people have been put off by the weather. My thanks go to the members of my group for keeping faith in me and not running off. The trip home was nicely uneventful, except when Louise decided to stick her feet out of the window - frightening! A final word of thanks goes to James Blake, who drove the CUSU minibus single-handedly from Cambridge to Edale and back, having only driven a minibus before on the previous day.
Rich NicholsonOnce at Edale (having met our defected members (Mark and Lizzie) at a service station with CUMC, walks were quickly organised with no faffing [!], unlike the day before? Jane & Tim made the excuse of driving [excuse? sounds quite reasonable - Ed.] to do a short walk to the tea-shop over Kinder Scout, while Rob & Andreas undertook the long Edale round-trip. Strangely there were other people who wanted to go (a bit keen, that). Not to be outdone, we decided to do the Kinder Edge - about 30km for those who were wondering [those who were wandering, surely! - Ed.], and we got down before dark. A good day's walk, even if the peat bogs were too dry to be much fun.
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