The Travelling Buncebury's

Edale Valley, early morning as we set off So, we’re all set for The Pennine Way and after unusually for us, a cooked breakfast we get a lift to the start in Edale.   Originally the route went over the summit of Kinder Scout, the hill north of Edale, an area of deep gullies in sopping wet peat.   The more walkers, the more difficult it became and apparently people regularly got lost because a straight line was so difficult to maintain and/or they sank up to their waists in mud.    Sensibly the route now skirts the worst of this to the west and difficult areas are paved with huge slabs of stone up to six feet by four and four or five inches thick.   We were to learn that without the slabs the route would be nigh impossible.   Before the climb started, we’d just gone through a stile when a sheepdog flashed past us close to a dry stone wall, turned at the end of the field The packhorse bridge at the bottom of Jacob's Ladder and began to work the sheep towards the

Pennine Way. Starts 10 miles behind, ends 250 miles in front.  Don't be fooled by the nice path Most of you will know that we walk a lot, particularly on long-distance paths and there is one classic British walk I’ve often thought about and never quite got around to.   It’s the first National Trail, set up in 1965 and it runs from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm just across the border in Scotland.   It’s called The Pennine Way and we’re finally going to do it even though it’s often described as ‘a challenge’.    Not in one go though, it is after all over 250 miles running along what’s usually called ‘The Backbone of England’.    So it’s high, exposed, mostly moorland and with some long sections between roads, so a day’s walk length is more dictated by access and egress than choice.   It will be wet, there will be few trees for shelter and so we’ve chosen to walk northwards with the prevailing wind on our backs to allow for the days of inclement weather.   Although to