The guidebook said that today would not be a memorable or
favourite day on the PW. It was described as the link between the Pennines and
the Northumberland National Park and the Cheviots. So we have left the Pennines
behind and are now heading North for Hadrian’s Wall, and the Scottish Border.
Wainwright described todays walk as tedious and dull and the guidebook said it
was boring. After the tedium of the
Corpse Road yesterday and those never ending grouse moors I found today a
delight, quite frankly. It was varied, passed through some remote farmyards and
the few farmers I met were positively friendly, chatty even, which is a first
for me. Also, more importantly perhaps,
it was only 15 miles with relatively little climbing; practically a day off.
The route inevitably had its boggy sections which we
(Sean, the backpacker, who you’ll recall I met in Thornton in Craven on day 5)
were informed of by a PW volunteer who was checking the route on behalf of the
Pennine Way Association. I would like to have cross examined her more and point
out some of the highs and lows along the route but she was keen to leave us and
get on. We were warned that the boggy section had no real path and you just
have to find your way through it. Sean and I agreed afterwards that we had been
there and done that and that it could be no worse than we have already had; we
were right.
We entered Northumberland through a little gate at a
footbridge over a small river, the Gilderdale Burn. Note that the river is now
a Burn.
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| The gate into Northumberland |
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| Welcome to Northumberland. I dont know what Isaac's Tea Trail is; need to look that up. |
The route also followed the old railway line that was a
branch line off the Newcastle – Carlisle railway. This was closed in 1976 and
now is part cycle path and part restored as a narrow gauge steam train.
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| Viaduct on the Alston Branch of the Newcastle to Carlisle railway |
I also walked along the River South Tyne as I had done
into Alston yesterday.
With so many fields and farmyards to navigate around it
was inevitably fiddly with constant references to the map and the GPS. At one
point I climbed over a stile into the back yard of a farmhouse and traversed
the yard toward the waymarked stile on the other side. It’s one thing having a
foot path go across your land, but through your back garden? Then there was also the meeting of three PW
walkers, me, Sean and now Dave (man with no map seen on day 10); we had lost the
path, waymarks were a rarity at this point. Between us we had two maps, two
GPSs and three brains. Dave went his own way following his GPS, Sean went his
own way following a faint path in the wet grass; I went up the middle following
my GPS which was being a bit flaky at this point. I headed towards a gate which
looked like it might have a way marker on it (could just have easily been
lichen or a large bird poo) and… yes it was a waymarker. We all gathered
together and laughed at our collective brain and technology power and in the
end it all comes down to that little white on black acorn nailed to a gate.
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| The River South Tyne |
I left Sean and Dave at this point and headed off the PW
to meet Catherine at a campsite near Haltwhistle. A fine site it is too;
Camping and Caravan Club; appears newly refurbished, very quiet.
A good walk; if that was in Kent all that would be
lacking would be a tea room en-route.
Hills can be overrated.
Catherine’s day sounded equally fine. Having dropped me
off in Alston she decided to take up the kind offer from last night’s campsite
owners to return there to park up whilst she went for her ride. She cycled 33 miles around Alston Moor with a
stop off for chocolate cake and a pot of tea (two teabags) at the National Lead
Mining Museum. Sound like I need to go there myself, more for the lead than the
cake, of course.
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| A Red Grouse. The managment of the moors around these birds has a lot to answer for; maybe I will expand on that another time |
Guidebook said: 16,5 miles to Greenhead. I am a bit short
of Greenhead at Halwhistle.
Garmin says: 15.3 miles; 5.4mph max; 3.1 moving average;
2.6mph overall average; 5hrs 56 mins with 1hour stoppages.
A long day again tomorrow, along Hadrian's Wall, before a rest day in Bellingham.
AW
Did you have waypoints programmed into your GPS?
ReplyDeleteI had the whole route in waypoints. Took me a long time but it worked very well on the whole. I worked out that the flakiness was when a waypoint was not quite on route and the GPS would insist on going to it even though I had passed it.
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