England
Edale
The Pennine Way's first step, where the path vanishes upward into peat and cloud.
The path leaves the village and climbs into peat and sky — this is the first step of the Pennine Way, and the moor ahead makes no promises. Edale in the Peak District sits beneath Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, a village defined entirely by the mountains that surround it.
Edale's position at the southern terminus of the 268-mile Pennine Way has made it a pilgrimage site for long-distance walkers since the trail opened in 1965. The mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932, which helped establish the right to roam across England's open moorland, began nearby. The village consists of a church, a pub, a café, and a scattering of farms in the Vale of Edale — a glacial valley running east-west beneath the Dark Peak plateau. The Kinder Scout plateau, at 636 metres, is a maze of peat groughs, gritstone edges, and the Kinder Downfall waterfall which blows upward in strong westerlies. The Hope Valley line provides direct rail access from Manchester and Sheffield, making Edale one of the most accessible mountain starts in England.
Solo
The Pennine Way begins at the Old Nag's Head and the moor ahead offers the kind of solitude that urban life forgets exists. Walk until the village disappears and the sky takes over.
Friends
Kinder Scout is a scramble best shared. Navigate the groughs together, find the Downfall, and descend to the Rambler Inn with peat on your boots and stories to trade.
- Mile zero of the Pennine Way — the 268-mile trail to Scotland starts from the pub car park.
- Kinder Scout above the village was the site of the 1932 Mass Trespass — the walk that changed access law in England forever.
- Grindsbrook Clough is a scramble up a waterfall-streaked ravine that deposits you on the Kinder plateau in swirling cloud.
- The valley floor is gentle and green, ringed by dark gritstone edges — the contrast between dale and moor is visible from the train.
Homemade pie and a pint at The Old Nag's Head — the official start of the Pennine Way.
Flapjack from the Penny Pot Cafe, fuel for the Kinder Scout scramble.
Tso Kar
India
Black-necked cranes wade through a high-altitude salt lake encrusted with blinding white mineral rings.
Rob Roy Glacier
New Zealand
A hanging glacier calving ice into a valley of waterfalls reached by a half-day scramble.
Broghil Valley
Pakistan
Wakhi yak herders camp where Pakistan nearly touches Tajikistan across Afghanistan's thin Wakhan strip.
Rush Lake
Pakistan
At 4,694 metres, one of Earth's highest alpine lakes mirrors Rakaposhi and Diran in still water.
Newquay
England
Atlantic swells smash into seven beaches where England learned to surf.
Ennerdale Water
England
The only Lake District lake with no road to it — silence earnt by walking.
Brighton
England
Regency excess meets punk rebellion on a pebble beach that never sleeps.
Bristol
England
Street art erupts from harbour walls where Banksy's ghost still prowls.