Sponsored Walk to Sheffield
We were men on a mission, a mission to get to Sheffield in the space of just two days..... The idea was to raise some sponsorship money for an expedition to Namibia I am going on in March 2005 (see my Raleigh appeal website),. We were doing this by the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT), which runs just by our houses and this meant a very bendy route to Sheffield, over 60 miles long. Things got off to a bad start when I managed to drop my rather expensive (£400) digital camera in the toilet (it fell out of my pocket - worse, I hadn't even flushed yet). Borrowing my dads camera, and leaving my beloved Canon to dry out we finally set off, at 4:30am, taking our first (very confident) picture below. After all, as I said at the time, "how hard can it be? Walking is just putting one foot in front of the other a few times right?"
After 4 hours, the first notable place we arrived at was Stockport, the true home of 'Scallies' and people who want to mug you (I'm trying not to generalise here!). Unfortunately, some of the less wonderful locals had ripped down all of the Trans Pennine Trail signposts and we got a bit lost, walking at least an extra mile (we knew this would hurt us later). After about 20 miles we had hit Derbyshire and finally began to enjoy the fresh air of the countryside. From here we walked, walked some more and then climbed to the peak of the trail, some 435 metres high. You may notice, that there is a gap of some 6 hours between the photo from the top of the trail, and the photo of Wortley Hall at the end of the day's walking. This, was because it was now heads down and lets get there stuff! We had hoped to stop in a hostel in Penistone, about a 40.5 mile walk from our houses, but a problem with our room booking meant we could only find a room in Wortley, some 5.5 mile walk from Pennistone, giving us 46 miles to do in the first day which eventually took us just over 16 hours (though this includes almost an hour of stoppages). Unfortunately, we ran out of water & isotonic drinks (we'd taken about 5 litres) for the last 2 miles and managed to get a little dehydrated, causing Michael to take a brief lie down on the muddy floor at one point. However, will-power succeeded and we got there - just about! However, on the picture we took on the following morning, we didn't look as motivated as on the first morning!
The final day wasn't too bad with a light 15-16 mile route into Sheffield city centre where (among other things) we enjoyed some nice villages, the cityscape-tacular delights of the council estates of Sheffield and the city centre itself. We eventually got to the train station where we met with my brother Paul and had a well deserved drink of hot chocolate along with a burger king. A one hour train journey later we were back in my beloved Manchester. Suffice to say, when I finally got to bed I had a very good sleep!!
 Thursday, 4:30am - A confident start!!!! |
 1 hour in - A first sign to sheffield |
 mmmmm Stockport! - Scallies had ripped down all the trail signs so we got a bit lost.... |
 Reddish (I think!) |
 Arrival in Derbyshire |
 The Pennines |
 Sleep deprivation kicking in.... |
 Part of Bottoms Reservoir |
 Woodhead pass (I think...) |
 Torside reservoir & some lovely pylons |
 20 miles gone and I'm falling behind.... |
 Old Train station |
 Climbing up.... |
 3pm - The view from 435 metres (the highest point on the trail) |
 9pm, after 46miles & 16 hours - Wortley hall hotel |
 Pedometer Reading |
 9am - Second day & raring to go!!! |
 A first sight of Sheffield |
 Getting closer |
 Finally, the station (after 61-62 long miles!!) |
 A well earned drink (we didn't have enough energy to go to a pub!) |
 Final pedometer reading (I think the real total steps was about 180,000!) |
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