Lose Hill, Hollins Cross, Kinder Scout and Grindslow Knoll

I have loads more photos for you this week - so again, not too many words but plenty to look at.

What with being limited to public transport, and therefore staying within the rough area of the Hope Valley where the train can drop us off, a lot of these photos are of places you've seen on this blog before - but as always it is nice to try and make something new of the same locations. I hope I have managed to do so, but if not then there are always some new ones toward the end from where we ventured into new territory for us!

I started the day with the 9.20 train to Hope so I could get in an extra couple of hills before Keri joined me later... so I had to rush the first 5 miles into an hour to be on time and what with it being so warm last weekend, the ascent of Lose Hill at almost slow jogging pace nearly killed me. After reaching the top, I had a walk along the ridge over Back Tor and then down at Hollins Cross into Edale to meet Keri - who by that point had already spent an hour enjoying tea and sandwiches at the always-lovely Pennypot Cafe. (They were also kind enough to fill my massive bottle of water up after I drank it all on this first little section!)

View along the ridge to Mam Tor from Lose Hill

View from Back Tor along the rest of the ridge

After joining up with Keri and filling my face with carrot cake we continued for the second part of my walk - with the aim of finding the Kinder Downfall. This is something we failed to do on a previous walk (which can be seen HERE) after approaching from the other side and getting very lost in the endless peat bogs, but this time we were taking the easy route up Jacob's ladder and along the edge of the Kinder Plateau so we were quite sure we'd not fail a second time.

The approach to Jacob's ladder

Up Jacob's Ladder and the view back over the valley

And the same again...

Reaching Kinder Low, all the uphills are done now!

Parts of the landscape up here look like another planet...

The view from the top of Kinder Downfall over the Kinder resevoir

Kinder Downfall

In the photo above, of Kinder Downfall, you can just about see the trickle of the river going over the edge, with all the wet rocks. As some of you may know, this waterfall is famous for the fact that quite often, such as on this occasion, the water falls off but doesn't ever make it to the bottom - getting blown back up by the prevailing westerly winds. Although it looks like there is barely any water there, I was actually getting a good covering in spray trying to take this photo... so was still quite a sight, and nice to finally witness it!

After a very quick break for some dinner, we headed off back with a bit more speed in order to make it back for the last train before they become less frequent in the evening. Luckily for us, as the sun got lower the clouds lifted again and we regained some of the lovely late summer sunshine we had had for much of the earlier part of the day - only now it was low enough to start giving things a nice warm colouring. 

To get back to Edale we would retrace our steps part of the way, but then head off along the front of the plateau towards Grindslow Knoll and come down there instead...

Some of the rock formations on Kinder Scout

View over Edale, Lose Hill and the Hope Valley from Grindslow Knoll

Heading down into the valley

And down a bit further...

Edale panorama (click to enlarge)

Our fellow walker, Michael, who was very friendly and chatted with us for the last 20 minutes of the walk

This way back is certainly a good one, as the final peak (Grindslow Knoll) gives very pleasant views down the valley before the steep descent into Edale - made even better by the late sunlight. 

Finally, if anybody is interested, a map of our walk can be found below. Since I now have my first ever smartphone I have signed up to ViewRanger and Social Hiking so I can track my routes using the GPS as I go. In theory, the photos and tweets should be matched up, using the time attached to them, to the location on the map - but for reasons beyond my comprehension not all are in the correct place, so apologies for that! But still, you can click any of the blue boxes to see photos and tweets.

Let me know what anyone thinks...