It’s not so often that an eclipse of the sun, full or partial, comes around but we were blessed with not only a partial one but also a clear sky to see it, on our evening outing. The timing even coincided with our run and planning it resulted in us being forced (?) to dawdle to be in the right place on Kinder at the right time between 19.10 and 19.40. We did set off a bit earlier than our usual 17.00 so that we could dawdle a bit more, from Hagg Hostel lay-bye; the “car park” has been closed off for a while, yet another one!
Fortunately, our climb was in the shade but it didn’t seem to help our pace which was hardly even fast walking, but it’s all because of our appointment with the eclipse. Soon though, we were able to enjoy (?) the full heat of the sun at Hope Cross before descending to Jaggers Clough which, amazingly, was still flowing. There was a brief interlude of relief from the sun as we climbed in the shade up to the ridge which was well covered with bracken until we reached the quarry.
We still haven’t used it for DPFR AGM business, as has been suggested many times but today would have been ideal, a quorum, there were seven of us, an eclipse, a Perseid shower and an alignment of astronomical bodies, all glorious omens for a DPFR AGM on August 12th. But like all AGM’s nothing was said or concluded apart from comments about enjoying the shade of the quarry.
It’s only a short distance to the rather undistinguished summit known as 444, but vegetation can slow us down; bracken and heather laden with pollen, which formed dusty clouds as we struggled through it. Whether it was this or an injury that caused Andy to retire early here to Crookestone and back to the cars, or the overwhelming auspiciousness of the occasion, we weren’t sure but we didn’t see him until we ourselves returned.
Jaggers Clough (upper) again, we followed the now dry Clough almost to the summit despite temptations to branch off on more well-defined paths. The trig could be seen clearly, though looking as if it had lost weight but this was just a trick of the light, it was full size when we reached i
The time had come. Our star gazer Michael unpacked his rucksack and brought out a pair of cutting boards (one for fish), sandwiched between them was a special light filter to enable observing the sun directly. Moz was also well prepared with his special eclipse glasses. We all had a go and attempted to photograph the part eclipse, with limited success. With the gradual dimming of the light, we decided to rush down across the wonderful dry peat to Madwoman’s Stones in time to see the eclipse becoming larger. We lingered a while here. until after the maximum eclipse had passed.
Whist the light had dimmed, it was easy enough to see where to place feet on the sometimes-narrow path, a full eclipse may need a torch? The dimming gradually brightened and we resumed our descent to the carpark through the shady woods, which were slippery with dust. After suffering the noise of speeding cars racing on the road next our cars, we headed off to the sanctuary and welcome of the YBI.
Tonight’s outing was special for the privilege being on Kinder during a partial eclipse with a group of like-minded Serious (Slow) Warts.
Thanks to all
Graham
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