Walking from John O'Groats to Land's End in the winter of 07/08.

Sunday 23 December 2007

Holmfirth to Ladybower

As I left Holmfirth by the steep lanes that wind their way uphill between cosy stone cottages, the townspeople enjoyed a traditional Sunday lie-in. A frosty and peaceful morning. To avoid walking along a main road, I followed further narrow lanes as they strenuously climbed the ridge between the rivers Ribble and Holme, then dropped into the Ribble valley and climbed out the other side. A few hundred meters of overgrown paths offered some respite from the tarmac before the lanes led on to Winscar reservoir.

The dam itself is impressively steep, high and hopefully no longer leaky. I had planned to follow a zig-zagging path that the map hinted might offer a short cut but found myself wandering along Broad Hill Bank with nothing obvious to take me to the bottom. Knowing how damaged my ego would be if I retraced my steps, I headed straight down the bank, luckily staying on my feet, and quickly nipped through someone's driveway to end up at Dunford Bridge.

This village is at one end of the lengthy Woodhead tunnels, the railway line having gone under the popular transformation of becoming a cycle route. While strolling along this I started to see people out enjoying the last Sunday before Christmas and there were plenty of people about for the rest of the day. I cut across fields to the forests around Langsett Reservoir and then up onto high and remote moorland. Now it was mainly fell runners that were passing by, making me feel unfit as I hauled myself up. The path is cut out of the peat, offering a unique lower view of the moor (the perspective of a grouse maybe).

I followed a small stream that dropped steeply to meet the northern tip of the Derwent reservoirs, famous for being the training ground of the dambusters. I was back in a familiar environment, as many of my childhood days were spent biking around these shores. The track alongside the water is easy, long and popular. Finishing the walking before the light ran out was a nice surprise but something that might become more common as the days lengthen and I head even further south.

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