It pays to take a closer look at the following days route over a pint the night before, as it turned out that there is a canal that runs between Hebden Bridge and Little borough that seemed to be an obvious alternative to heading up and onto the ridge at the start of the day. We decided to take the canal route and it turned out to be a good choice that saved us a few hours of climbing. When we did leave the canal at the Pennine bridleway just before Little borough, the climbing began immediately and continued until we reached the 600 year old 'Aggin Stone' way marker, complete with informative plaque asking for the stone to be respected. There was however, no plaque to explain how the adjacent 'Dick Slack' marked on the map came to be named.
The remainder of today's route continued over the tops of the moors, before crossing the exposed M62 via a pedestrian bridge built specially to prevent Pennine Way walkers attempting a suicidal crossing of the motorway. Immediately after crossing the bridge and before entering the infamous Saddleworth Moor, we arrived at a roadside tea stop, the owner of which informed us that he had been serving teas and food to weary walkers for the last 35 years, only taking Christmas Day off and that he features in Wainwright books, and a Doves video amongst other things. I had in fact heard of this guy from reading Mark Moxon's book, so it was good to meet him and the refreshments were very welcome seeing as the only other pub on the route today had its doors firmly locked until 12.
The final destination today was Diggle, which meant a descent off the hillside, then a further 2 Mile walk into a very underwhelming town centre to get some food. With hindsight, it would have been better to have stocked up from the 35 year tea man and stayed on the ridge for a rough camp. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
The Rochdale canal leaving Hebden Bridge. The highest canal in England.
Statistics
Distance: 19 Miles
Moving Time: 6 Hours 42 Mins
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