Pennine Way day 1(Fri 18th April 2014) - Edale to Torside(15 miles)

The first day of our Pennine Way adventure started in glorious sunshine on good friday, after a spot of last minute packing and ditching of various items from our backpacks we caught a train from leeds to take us to Edale for the start of the walk! We changed at sheffield onto a tiny 2 carriage train eager to get to edale and get going. There were a few other people on the train with suspiciously large backpacks who we presumed were fellow pennine way-ers but mostly there were lots of people out for day walks making the most of the bank holiday sunshine! 

The Old Nags head- Edale

It's a short walk through the village to the Nags head pub which is the official start of the walk and we stop briefly to take a few photos and pause for a moment, nervous and excited in equal measure about the journey ahead, finally setting off just before 10am.

The route starts off easily enough across slabbed fields and paths, although it's already really hot and we have to stop and strip off several layers of clothing and i'm already finding my rucksack a bit annoying!  We get chatting to an australian girl called Katy who has the most enormous rucksack and is camping the whole route and carrying her own stuff…hats off to her because i'm already struggling with my bag and it's nowhere near as heavy or as cumbersome! 

 We head up Jacob's ladder which is pretty tiring but mostly due to the heat than the gradient, we're passed by lots of mountain bikers who seem to be spending more time carrying their bikes than actually riding them, but each to their own i suppose!! 
The path then evens out to Kinder low which is like walking onto a lunar landscape with beautiful views in every direction and we stop for lunch at Kinder downfall where there are literally hundreds of day trippers out enjoying their picnics in the sunshine.

 We head downhill passing the crossroad sign at Snake path and walking for a while on slabbed paving stones, which while not the most interesting section makes it pretty easy to follow the path and knock some distance off pretty quickly.  We cross over the main road and onto a sunken track called Devil's dyke and eventually along the rim of Clough edge where the views open up across Torside reservoir and we head down towards our B&B for the night - The Old House.

 A well deserved cup of tea at Torside!

 We're met with a very welcome pot of tea and enjoy the sunshine on the outside decking area before getting a quick shower and a lift to the local pub;The Peels Arms in Padfield. The B&B owners will drop you off and pick you up for £3 providing its before 9pm.  We had a lovely pub tea and a very well deserved pint(or two!) before heading back exhausted but happy after a wonderful first day's walking.