Discussion: Looks like a rather bland course...

Without a great deal of opportunity for route choice or error?

Not huge opportunities for error by and large. The roughness of the forest did open up some route choice options which might not have been there in a faster area (I took the track on the first half of 5-6 for instance), and 7-8 was one of those legs where I'm not sure there was a good option.

Pity they couldn't have used Gumble, I might have seriously considered undertaking that journey (flooding aside). Are the Hill End maps likewise unavailable these days?

Gumble was the original plan, an inability to contact the new southern, absent landowners and access issues from the north due to all the rain scuppered that plan. A requirement to tape every mine shaft means Hill End is very much in the too difficult bucket.

And as it turned out, I suspect that the track into the south end of Gumble would have been difficult at best in current conditions even if we had landowner support.

Did I hear that there were plans for another attempt at Gumble next May?

Yes there are plans dependant on the same factors.