THE ROAD TO NOWHERE: I've sunbathed on Kinder

In late summer we had the first proper holiday with just the two of us

for 25 years,it rained most of the week but it was bliss and a taste of things to come now our children are all grown up.
As part of our training for the camino we took the caravan and headed for the derbyshire dales the first national park in England which in part came about by the mass trespass on "Kinder Scout"of 500 ramblers in 1932
http://kindertrespass.com/index.asp?ID=37 and immortalised in the song "the Manchester rambler" by Ewan McCall
Kinder at 631 meters is the highest peak in the national park,hardly a mountain, but enough to challenge these Norfolk dwellers.
another reason for visiting derbyshire was my first grandchild she who must be obeyed queen Izzy, a great day was had and I'm fairly sure all got home safely at the end of the day.

The week was made up of mostly low level walks in the rain not too testing for these seasoned walkers,It seems strange to talk in those terms about me and Rosie but seasoned we are, nearly a year into our "new life" and all is well.
This hasn't always been the case 25 years is a long time, half of Rosie's life has been spent with me and while I would like to say its all been sweetness and light I would be lying,but somehow walking gives you the space and time to talk,argue,shout and slag each other off if need be without any distractions or blood being spilt.

The mass trespass of kinder scout was always a major focal point of my fathers life,this pre war mass demonstration of working men demanding the right to roam.
"I'm a rambler I'm a rambler from Manchester way I get all my pleasure the hard moorland way.
I may be a wage slave on Monday but I am a free man on Sunday"
so actually to do the walk and follow in the footsteps of those 500
men who were unable by law to do what I now take for granted .
was something special.

starting from Bowden bridge quarry the first landmark is Kinder reservoir where in 1932 the first fighting took place between the gamekeepers of the duke of devonshire and the 500 hikers, as there was only 30 gamekeepers the fighting didn't last long and the jubilant hikers stormed up to the kinder scout plateau.
I love this picture of Rosie £13000 worth of teeth veneers and breast augmentation hoping to get 500 hikers fighting over her.

A steep walk up a water gully takes you to the ridge below the summit, the main benifit of daily walking isn't that the pain gets easier but the recovery is quicker,this was the point when I first truely realized that the camino was possible.
At this point the long distace walk "the pennine way" crosses kinder.
I was only sitting down to admire the view honest!!

I love looking back on how far and how high you have climbed,
this view of the kinder reservoir seems so far away but only seems moments ago I was taking rosies photo.

Lunch break on kinder with rosie chatting up some old ram

Below rosie in this pic are steep steps into the valley below,you can see the small figures in the distance,

the day we did this climb was the only clear day of the whole weeks holiday.

after the mass trespass 5 people were arrested and later imprisioned but this was the starting point in england of the "right to roam" which went through many changes untill full rights to roam uncultivated land became law in 2003.

As well as a pleasure it was a privaledge to walk on land made possible by a group of working men who not long after fighting for the right to recreation in englands green and pleasant land were fighting other wars.