Day 48- Diggle to Crowden

Woke up feeling sweaty and gross and really wanted showers but had to settle for washing in the sinks in the pub. I think the toilets were public ones so were open all the time but we scared the lady who owned the pub who was cooking in the kitchen next door. She was really lovely and asked if we would like to have breakfast. We didnt feel we could say no as they had kindly let us camp outside so we said tea and toast would be lovely thankyou and went and made our selves at home. Breakfast was lovely and again i ate a hideous amount of toast! There were 3 other guests at breakfast and we got chatting to them and told them what we were doing. It turns out the couple used to own a B&B on the Pennine Way and they said that lots of people who walked it North to South seemed to get lost and that they too thought it was badly signposted in places....this made us feel good, at least we weren't the only ones! Breakfast over we went to leave and the lady said dont worry breakfast was free which was a very nice surprise!

We then left the bags in the tent and went off in search of a food shop. The girl at the bar last night said there was a spar about 15 minutes away but it definately wasn't that close and we ended up walking about 2 miles to the shop and then 2 miles back but we needed food so we can't really complain. By the time we got back to the tent we were shattered already! After a busy morning we were finally ready to get going at about 11am, bags heavy with a few days worth of food. As usually it wasn't long before we were sweating away, it was another hot morning and the day started with the climb back up to Standedge. I saw a man with a sweatband yesterday and thought it looked like a really good idea but i've been thinking about it and think it might actually make me sweat more!

From Standedge we followed a flagstone path across the moor then down to some reservoirs. The path then led us around the side of one the reservoirs then up the other side to a road. These moors were called the Sadleworth moors which were famous as the moors where mira hindley and Iain Brady buried the bodies of the children they murdered, it was all a bit spooky. Then it was another climb up to Black hill then down the other side. From here we then had to climb up again along the right hand side of the valley, the path was skinny and rocky and it lead up quite high and at the top the skinny path ran right along next to a massive drop! It felt really dodgey and i was genuienly scared! I was worried that one of us would slip and fall off but i was also worried about dropping one of my leki poles....i don't know what i would do without the poles, they have proved very handy!....It was along here that Jade jolted her leg and it first started hurting but she didnt think too much of it at the time.

After the scary ledge we had a long, steep and rocky path to follow into Crowden which we could see down ahead of us. A little way down i stopped and waited for jade who walked around the corner and said, "Beck....there's a pigeon stalking me! I don't really mind its quite cute, but, its a bit weird!" I thought she was exaggerating but then it flew around the corner and i soon realised that it actually was! I watched it and as Jade walked it would fly from rock to rock following her. It then started walking along with us and when we got to boggy sections or it couldn't keep up, it would fly instead! We actually started walking slower so that it could keep up....it must have looked like we were out walking our pet pigeon!

After a good 20 minutes of stalking pigeon left us, but not long after we were being attacked by flying ants! We stopped for a minute to work out the best path to take to the campsite and that was enough time for them to notice us. They were horrible and they were everywhere! We quickly moved on and tried to brush them off of us as we walked. Jade was in front of me and i could see that her silver rain cover which was over her bag was covered in them....i couldn't actually see the silver! It was hideous and looked like something off of goosebumps. I started hitting them off with my stick but didn't tell Jade that it wasn't just a couple but actually an ant invasion on her back because i thought if it was me i would freak out and rather not know!

During the ant invasion we ended up just choosing a random path and hoping that it would take us where we wanted to be. It turned out to be a brilliant little short cut and lead us right to the campsite which is something that hardly even happens! We usually have a 50- 50 choice and choose wrong so this made a nice change. The campsite we arrived at was very nice: there was a drying room so we made the most out of it and washed some clothes and they also let us charge our phones in the office. After putting up the tent and showering we cooked dinner outside which we haven't done in a while but we soon had to retreat back into the tent because the midges arrived!

We were happily sat in the tent reading when Jade suddenly started freaking out. There were 3 spiders with white things on the backs on the roof of tent. Spiders don't bother me to much such i got them in my hands but opened the fly sheet to chuck them out to get a facefull of midges!! There was a swarm of them outside the tent just waiting for us! There were now loads in the tent as well. We didn't want to have to get out the tent again because we didn't want to let anymore in but we both needed a wee, so Jade came up with a cunning plan....we would quickly sneak out of the little door which we never use, they wouldn't suspect that! We made it to the toilets but then had to get back into the tent. Jade came up with another plan but managed to forget it on the long walk to the tent and ran to the wrong door saying "ahhh sorry got confused!"....dum dum! So our tent was full of midges and we ended up going to sleep with sleeping bag liners up over our faces in full midgie defence. 

This is Jade and i would just like to say, it was dark and i was confused where my door was as tent logistics didn't feel right! The spiders were hideous and I do not enjoy sharing a tent with 3 white abdomened spiders, however the midgies were just as hideous and we also did not enjoy in-tent-midgie-defence-systems. 

Today Jade informed me that she thought i was the weirdo out of the two of us because i can eat items of food on their own.....i'm not convinced!