Читать книгу The Pennine Way - the Path, the People, the Journey онлайн

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Gordon (who during his 34 years at the national park was affectionately known as ‘Gordon the Warden’) also recalled some of the other bizarre sights witnessed at the start of the Pennine Way during the early days of the trail. Brenda Smith, former landlady of the Church Hotel (now the Rambler Inn), told him about the Japanese gentleman who set off to walk the Pennine Way in the late 1960s with a donkey – to the understandable bemusement of local people. Although no one knows exactly what happened, apparently he returned three days later, tied up his beast at Edale and set off again to walk the path, but this time on his own.

‘In the early 1970s, there was also an enterprising reporter from the Daily Express who declared he was going to complete the Pennine Way on horseback,’ remembered Gordon. ‘He took the Jacob’s Ladder route but found it hard work and at the end of the day had only reached Kinder Low. He camped below the summit, but unfortunately his horse bolted during the night and after that he packed it all in.’