Time to walk: LEJOG Day 45: Torside to Diggle

Weather: Steady rain, relenting late on

Distance covered today: 24.4km (15.2mi)

Last night's B&B: The Old House (£50)

Cumulative distance: 877.0km (544.9mi)/ % Complete: 45.8%

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 45 (click!)

Exhilarated just won’t do it! Firstly, I survived it, but much more importantly, despite persistent rain and low cloud, I thoroughly enjoyed it! My first day on the Pennines was as long and as hard as I had expected, but three things made it much easier and more enjoyable than I had anticipated. For a start, I was joined by my good friend Richard B and his absolutely delightful daughter Ellie. Richard is an old colleague of mine from those dark days of work, who has consistently made the effort to keep in touch despite the overwhelming demands of a very busy, international career and bringing up four delightful daughters with his lovely wife, Wendy. The whole family came from southern England to the start of the Pennines partly so that Richard and Ellie could walk the first leg with me, and that is nothing less than an enormous compliment.

It has to be said that there were times when I believe that secretly Ellie was asking herself just what on earth was she doing on top of the moors in the driving rain, with water in her boots and two old men talking about really boring work stuff, but to be perfectly honest, she never showed a bit of it. She was the perfect companion for the entire trip and a credit to her parents.

But I digress. I said there were three things that made the difference today. The second was that I took Veronica’s advice and swapped my very trusty and hugely comfortable old boots for a new pair that I had walked in shortly before leaving home. For me this was a difficult decision. My old boots have become so comfortable that they really feel like a second skin, and I was reluctant to change them for a new and potentially rather stiff pair, but the tread of the old pair is now almost worn out from all my road-work, and as I am nearly half way, it did seem sensible to change them so that I had good, grippy tread and sound waterproofing on the Pennine Way part of the journey. Veronica was very forceful on this point, and how right she was! Today, I waded through ankle deep fords on a very regular basis and my feet remained as dry as a bone. The old boots would have been sopping! Additionally the extra tread was a welcome protection against some very slippery sections of the path.

Thirdly, yesterday I gave way to the consistent advice of both of my daughters and bought myself a couple of walking poles. Today they were lifesavers. Not only did they keep me upright in the streams but they very greatly assisted my ascents and descents, although it has to be said, they were a pain on the flat. I haven’t quite sorted out my walking technique and I need to be able to stash them away more easily, but that will come. My only problem now is that with all that upper body work, it isn’t just the nether regions which are suffering! Your correspondent is a wreck from the neck down, and after a couple of delicious beers, he isn’t much good from the neck up either!

So, the first day of the Pennine penance is over! It was really reassuring to have Ellie and Richard with me. Richard is an old hand with much experience of the English wilds and a deep love of the countryside. His phlegmatic and practical approach to all the obstacles we faced was hugely motivational and it was delightful to be in the company of someone who so clearly enjoys the wild parts of Britain. He told me many tales of his experiences on the Monroe’s, and in the army. He spoke movingly of the permanent beauty and peacefulness of these wild places and how they help to put the business world with all its ephemera in perspective. Most importantly, he also made me feel confident about the test that lies ahead of me. I think I can see how I will cope.

He and his family’s arrival coincided with Veronica’s departure. That too was fortunate, as my parting from Veronica was also likely to be a little emotional. From now onwards, I will be too far north for Veronica to visit me, so we will be apart for the rest of the journey. We spent frantic hours last night, filling in spreadsheets with phone numbers and grid references, poring over maps and books and generally trying to sort out my plans for the rest of the trip. It is all much more complicated than it sounds, driven amongst other things by the constant need to keep the weight of my pack down at critical points in the journey. In the end, with her dedicated assistance, the plan has come together and is looking robust, at least until 16th July, which is a huge step forward and takes a lot of the pressure off me.

Despite all this effort we also managed fascinating trips to Edale and Buxton to see some of the sights that would have eluded me as a result of my shortcut to Torside. Both of these places were interesting, but particularly Buxton fascinated me, because it seems to have been arrested in its nineteenth century splendour, complete with pavilions, the opera house, the crescent and its lovely gardens. It is quite clear why so many genteel and polite people came here to “take the waters” in the nineteenth century. There is even a place where one can drink the genuine Buxton bottled water that is so expensive in the cafés of London straight from a water fountain below the pavilion.

In those days, the genteel folk just enjoyed the delights of Buxton. These days, their successors head for the moors! Finally, I have finished my first day on these moors and I am not feeling as intimidated as I had anticipated. Let us see what tomorrow will bring!