Kinder Scout

Karen had been ill with a bug most of the week and gad decided to have an easy day on Saturday to continue recovering. The weather forecast was for strong winds and rain but I had decided during the week that I was going to go walking whatever the weather. So, it was a return visit to Kinder Scout.
I parked at the car park at Barber Booth and set off up the road past a farm to Upper Booth and then through a gate leading along the side of Crowden Brook. Continuing up the Crowden Brook valley I decided to avoid my usual rout along the stream bed after all the recent rain, plus I could see a group of walkers further up near the top so to avoid queuing at the short scramble at the top, I chose the steep section leading up towards Crowden Tower which avoids the Brook which brought me to the path which skirts the edge of the plateau of Kinder Scout.
So far it hadn't been very windy and there had been no rain either. Plus it was clear with no sign of low cloud or mist so I followed the continuation of Crowden Brook in a North-West direction hoping to reach the farther edge of the plateau in the vicinity of Kinder Downfall. I kept following the large stream bed, keeping an eye on the compass. This led me more in a westerly direction overall. When the stream bed petered out I rejoined the plateau and although there were short sections of very boggy looking ground, these were easily avoidable, and those which weren't avoidable were not very deep anyway. Luckily there were none of the usual deep groughs which you find on the plateau so it was relatively easy going.
Soon I could see the further edge of the plateau and also hills in the distance beyond. There was a prominent rock in roughly the right direction so I just continued heading towards this rock. Soon I was at the path which leads along the further edge of the plateau and I immediately recognised the Mermaids Pool (a small pool of water) below and the large incut into the plateau formed by Red Brook about 1 kilometre south of the Downfall.
About this time it started to rain a bit and I sheltered in the lee of a rock overlooking the ground below and had a drink from my flask. After this, I rejoined the path and followed it southwards passing the Trig. Point at Kinder Low and then onwards to the large formation of Kinder Rocks. Here I found shelter in the lee of the wind and rain and had a lunch stop to eat my sandwiches and finish my flask.
I had been looking at the map while eating my sandwiches to decide on which route to follow next. As it was still early in the day and I didn't fancy descending via Jacob's Ladder, I decided to drop down from Edale Rocks and follow the edge path past the rocks at Noe Stool and the scattered large and weathered gritstone rocks at The Woolpacks. Here I found that a large piece of gritstone ahd fallen over recently and broken into large pieces. I wondered if it had been pushed over purposely but it looked too large to have done that so maybe it was just continuing weather erosion had weakened the base it it had simply collapsed.
Anyway, I soon passed the top of Crowden Brook again with the rain now persistent and followed on the gritstone slabs forming the path until just before the top of Grindsbrook valley where I veered off to the top of Grindslow Knoll. I passed the cairn on top and followed down the other side until I reached the path up from Edale village with a junction to a path leading back towards Upper Booth. I followed this path until I was back at the road leading back to where I had parked at Barber Booth after a nice five hour walk despite the wind and rain, which wasn't as bad as had been forecast anyway.