Kinder Scout

Karen was accompanying some cavers in the gates extensions in Water Icicle Close Cavern and I was planning on a walk.
I had decided on Kinder Scout again, not due to a lack of imagination but because I enjoy walking on Kinder so much.
It was a cooler day than of late and there was the threat of heavy showers but luckily it remained dry while I was on the walk and dark clouds only appeared as I was finishing.
I reversed most of the route we took last time when walking on Kinder by starting at the layby in Upper Booth and walking up via Jacob's Ladder. When I reached the paved section which approached Edale Rocks I veered off on the path which follows a ruined drystone wall heading towards the rock formations called Noe Stool and further along, The Pagoda.
Near the top of the Pagoda I found a spot mostly sheltered from the cold wind and sat on a boulder to have a snack and hot drink from my flask (the first time I've had a hot drink while walking for months).
Then, continuing onwards, I left the busy path which skirts the edge of the plateau for a while and just walked across heather and peat bog. I noticed there is a lot of fresh grass sprouting on the peat as a result of re-seeding and also due to the fence which has been built around most of Kinder Scout to try and keep the sheep off to allow the vegetation to grow.
As I was walking “off the beaten track”, I walked past a mountain hare which had been keeping still nearby, causing it to bolt off at speed.
At the top of Grindsbrook Clough, which was as busy with walkers approaching the plateau from Edale as it usually is, I sat just below the edge among some boulders to eat my sandwiches as I watched people coming along the valley path below and a few walk across to the top of nearby Grindslow Knoll. Afterwards, when I reached the northern branch of Grindsbrook Clough, where we had scrambled up last time, I continued around the top of the ravine and then followed the edge path as far as the rocky ridge of Ringing Roger where I followed the path dropping down towards the Nab and eventually to the village of Grindsbrook Booth.
I walked down the road form the village as far as the train station and then followed a meander route of a footpath signposted for Barber Booth which began through the station car park and then a gravelled track before following a meandering route through fields until I reached Barber Booth.

From there I followed the narrow, winding road back to the layby I started at.