LEJOG
Distance walked – 28.9km (18.1miles)
Total Distance – 1169.6km (731miles)
Summer Days
I’ll float downstream
Wondering where the day has been
Fotheringhay – Two weeks last summer
After our worries of two days ago, we feel that we are back in walking form. Despite yesterday being the toughest day on the Pennine Way (PW), we not only got through it, but really enjoyed it as well. Our niggling injuries seem to have subsided a bit, and we are now feeling confident that we can finish the PW and then get to Edinburgh for our next rest days. We continue to be fortunate with the current spell of weather, and today turned out to be another fine summer day which elevated what should have been a simple linking day on the Pennine Way to a really enjoyable day of walking.
Our accommodation last night, the Alston Youth Hostel, was the best hostel we have stayed in so far on this trip. We were able to make our own dinner last night in the self-catering kitchen, we had our washing done (so clean walking clothes today!!), and we stayed for the excellent breakfast this morning. Alston is apparently the highest market town in England at 320m. It certainly has some very grand stone buildings, but more importantly for us, it has one of the best SPAR mini-supermarkets we have come across. We were able to stock up on some great lunch provisions for the next few days before setting off on the path this morning.
South Tyndale
For the first part of the day, we wandered up South Tynedale (the river valley of the South Tyne). The path initially took us high up one side of the valley where we passed the remains of the Roman Fort of Whitley Castle. Only some earthen mounds remain, but the information boards were quite interesting about this outpost at the very edge of the Roman Empire. (It was probably built to protect the local lead mining industry, and to provide support to Hadrian’s Wall).
It made us think that one of the great things about our journey across Britain has been the sense of walking in history. I wonder if the physicality of the walking in direct connection with the landscape gives a connection to the past, present and future that is not appreciated when speeding along in a car or train.
Traditional Hay Meadows
The valley was verdantly green today, the sun shining brightly on the rolling hills with moorland high above. We descended back down towards the river, crossing several traditional hay meadows alive with wildflowers. (We have crossed several over the past few days but remembered to take some photos today). Apparently this far North, the hay is harvested quite late, thus giving the wildflowers a chance to seed and propagate for the next year.
Running Man (who we first met a few days ago) caught up with us and walked with us for a few minutes. We had seen him arrive at the Youth Hostel after us yesterday evening. He said that he had walked over Cross Fell on five previous occasions and never had a view, emphasising how lucky we were with the weather yesterday. As he is running we chatted about the Spine Race, which is a crazy ultra-marathon run along the entire Pennine Way (427km) in winter. He seemed to know a lot about it, and we wonder if he is training for it and doing a recce of the course. He was very polite but obviously itching to get running again so we wished him luck and an enjoyable day. We won’t see him again as he is ging through to the Youth Hostel in Twice Brewed (over 40km today!). He ran off, quickly disappearing into the distance.
Choo Choo!!
The path now took us alongside the South Tyne Railway line for a while. The railway is now run by volunteers as a tourist Heritage line after the original passenger line closed in 1976. Just as we were about to leave the line, we heard a `toot toot’ in the distance and before long the Green Dragon steam engine chugged past pulling several carriages full of waving passengers.
We passed under a grand railway viaduct to walk alongside the river for a section.
Tree Love
Our guidebook says that today is a linking day between the North Pennines and tomorrow’s spectacular day along Hadrian’s Wall, and that Wainwright considered it the dullest day on the PW. We, on the contrary, found the walking to be beautiful and really enjoyable, although we were probably looking through the rose-coloured glasses of a perfect early summer day.
The idyllic riverside section eventually came out onto a road which took us into the wonderfully named Slaggyford. We sat on the Village Green on a death-bench, (For Bill who was swift and sure – an interesting epitaph, maybe he was a runner?), and had a morning snack. From Slaggyford we headed off on the railway line, now a bike/walking track (the train only runs from Alston to Slaggyford).
Railway Viaduct
We left the railway line at Burnstones, where there is a fine stone viaduct, and climbed up high onto the edge of the moorland, to follow an old Roman road called The Maiden Way. The road, which retains its cobblestones in places, runs in a dead straight line on the edge of the moor, with great view across the green valley.
We left the Roman road and the moorland to cross a series of farm pastures. We had lunch sitting up against a drystone wall, where close examination of the map revealed that we still had 10km to go! We have been trying not to have too long for lunch breaks as we find it quite difficult to get going again from stiffness after stopping for a prolonged period but today we made an exception to enjoy the fine pies we had purchased from the bakery at the Spar in Alston.
After lunch there was some tricky route finding but we were rewarded/punished with the following – an atmospheric ruined farmhouse, a pretty hidden valley with stream and footbridge, and a squalid farm and farmyard where we are sure people have been murdered. (There may have been a body in the derelict Rav 4).
Lost on the Moors
The penultimate section of the day was a difficult to follow moorland crossing of Hartleyburn Common. We could not find the path and ended up following a series of sheep pads that would appear and then suddenly disappear. We eventually gave up on the path and followed a compass reading over the rough grassy terrain. Luckily the moor was very dry and only rises to a fairly gentle 289m. We eventually regained the path towards the end of the crossing and headed down to cross the busy A69.
The final part of the day was a somewhat surreal crossing of a golf course, an interesting counterpoint after our difficult traverse of the open moor. Golf courses always seem very uninviting to the walker, and this one was no exception with numerous signs advising us not to walk here and that they took no responsibility for our well-being. We ignored them all and crossed the greens in a general direction we thought to be right.
We were soon entering the village of Greenhead where the Greenhead Hostel was our destination for tonight.
It had been another great day of walking under beautiful summer skies. Long may it continue (well hopefully to Edinburgh at least). . . . .
