Stanage Edge

Another one of those days with no real plan, fancied going to Hathersage, I've not been before and just cos its ‘out there’ innit maaaan.

Hathersage, a small town in the Dark Peak, is only an hour away from home and pretty it was too.  Although they wanted 5 quid to park the car all day!  Robbing sods.  So I moved it and parked on the road opposite the fire station for free, ha!

Please excuse the quality of the photos on this entry, they are all via the shitty iphone camera as my real cameras in Greece.

So anyway, the plan, such as it was, would be to zip up to the official ‘peak’ of Stanage Edge, High Neb, then see how we felt after that.. 

The 'Edge' (no not the pretentious twat from U2)

Heathers in bloom. ahhhh pretty

Once on top, the arc of Stanage Edge sweeps before you like a ginormous crescent moon, with dots of people all along its length.  Be just stupid to go straight back down, so along the edge it was and would see how I felt in ½ an hour or so.  A bit further up were several groups of climbers, most friendly and chatty with that lovely Sheffield accent (which isn’t very far away).

Millstone

High Neb (Kinder in background)

Despite a hangover (what’s new alky), ribs still sore and lack of ‘hill time’ I was doing surprisingly well.  Enjoying the effort of the uphill bits and practically jogging the flat bits.  I really did dawdle when starting off, so perhaps the proper warm up did the trick?

View down to Hathersage

Stanage Edge looking back

Once at the far end of the edge, marked by another cairn, it was time to pull the map out and think about some sort of ‘exit strategy’ for getting back to the town.  A route via Higger Tor (another hill and pile of rocks), seemed the natural path.  So up and over, avoiding loads of walking groups and picnickers, across a road, through a farm (why do farmers not bother with footpath notices through their properties?  Do they actually want people to walk into their front rooms?!) and it was back to town.

A quick wander around the town, there’s about 3 outdoors shops (only bothered with 1) and back up to the car.

By the car, I  was parked near to Hathersage's Outdoor Swimming Pool, I did toy with going in (I had my kit with me), but after a quick circuit decided that I'd look too much like a paedophile if I went in on my own.  Oh well, another time with the kids maybe.

Stats

Miles – About 9

Time – 3 ½ Hours

Peaks – 1  High Neb( A “hump” apparently http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/EWRegions/HuMPs.php)

Real Ale Pub – 1 – The Millstone, just above the town.