Day 33 Crowden to Diggle

15 April 2013: 21km (+2km round Diggle). Started 08:30. Arrived 14:20.

I woke and confirmed the weather looked good (as forecast).  Breakfast was served promptly by the friendly hostel warden.  I departed after leaving some positive comments in the “visitor box” and enjoyed climbing on a good path.  Soon “the man” (Tom) overtook me as I crossed some streams.  However at the trig point on Black Hill, I caught him and a further two people.  He explained to the three of us that thirty years ago the hill had been a sea of waterlogged black peat.  Now there is green vegetation and a slabbed path – positive changes.

I ate lunch near the first reservoir.  Then there was a steep climb across the valley with subsequent easy walking all the way to Standedge.  I saw a helicopter in the distance – I think it was lowering slabs for another path.  The slabs fit well into the landscape and definitely prevent path erosion.  I kept overtaking and then being overtaken by the other three walkers I had seen on Black Hill as our walking and resting regimes did not match.

I had a booking at the Diggle Hotel and so at Standedge I left the Pennine Way to descend to the village using the Pennine Bridleway.  It was before 2.30pm when I passed the Hotel and thought it was too early to arrive.  In the village I posted some maps back home and then returned to the Hotel via the canal path.  The canal is the highest navigable waterway in Britain; in the tunnel it is the deepest underground canal.  In fact the tunnel has triple distinction: it is Britain’s highest, deepest and longest canal tunnel.

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The village was definitely a “Last of the Summer Wine” type of place, with a few small groups of men wandering around.  It did seem to be a friendly sort of community.  I wasn’t quite sure whether I was in Lancashire or in Yorkshire – small wonder as I find that it was traditionally in West Yorkshire and then, with boundary changes, was in Lancashire.  In fact I was in neither as it is now in the Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester.  However at the time I remained in ignorance as I thought asking that question would not be tactful – probably on a par with asking whether Bude is in Devon or Cornwall (of course it’s in Cornwall!).

When I arrived at the hotel, I discovered that it was under new management and being refurbished.  I couldn’t get the shower to work in my room and neither could the landlady.  She swapped me into a different room which had a strong smell of air freshener – not sure what it was hiding and probably better not to know, especially given that pets were allowed.  Arriving fairly early, I had plenty of time to read the books and map and check out my route for the next few days.  Dinner was in the hotel bar and I was told breakfast “anytime” – but I sensed when I mentioned it that 07:00 was too early so I opted for 07:30.