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Journal: |
Breakfast, which was excellent, was at 8am and I chatted to the
B&B owner, Caroline, while eating. Their farmhouse was a
beautiful renovation of a house dating back to mediaeval times, but
Caroline said that the winters were brutal and the remoteness was
sometimes difficult. They will be moving nearer London in a
few years time.
I got away at 8:45am, later than I would have liked, given that I
was aiming for Dufton, which I guessed to be about 45km away.
There was nothing for a long time before Dufton, so it was really a
case of a short day or a long day, and the long day would put me
back on a comfortable schedule. The first couple of hours
involved traversing farmland and low moors to Middleton-in-Teesdale
where I hoped to get some supplies for the day and some maps.
The quaint old town had a small supermarket where I bought a
sandwich for later and some soft drink. Unfortunately all of
the shops that might have sold maps were closed on Mondays. I
also needed a new book, having finished one last night, but the
bookshop was closed too.
From Middleton, the very pleasant path followed the River Tees
upstream through picturesque farmland, in many places carpeted with
wildflowers. Many of the farmhouses were painted white,
something of a tradition in the area. It was lovely walking,
though it started to rain steadily around noon. There were a
lot of high stiles to cross, and their wet rocks had me treading
very carefully. I saw a few walkers, particularly around two
excellent waterfalls, Low Force and High Force (Force from the
Viking word Foss for waterfall), where the tannin-stained water of
the River Tees thundered over jagged rocks.
Gradually I left the farms behind and entered moorland,
continuing to climb following the River Tees upstream. The
rain was making the track very wet and boggy in parts, but I tried
to maintain a good pace. Fortunately, my left heel which was
sore yesterday, seemed to have settled down. Apparently the
pen-knife surgery on the deep blister under the callus was
successful! As for much of yesterday, my feet were wet from
noon onwards. I never saw anybody else all afternoon and had
the bleak moors to myself as I climbed through the rain, but it
wasn't so bad until my iPod stopped working and I discovered that,
somehow, water had got into the plastic bag inside my Goretex jacket
and drowned both my radio and iPod. I was very annoyed.
I soldiered on along the Pennine Way, including through some
difficult slippery rocky sections which slowed my pace considerably.
An afternoon highlight was the powerful multi-tiered waterfall at
Cauldron Snout where the River Tees plunged down from a higher
valley through a narrow gorge. Very impressive. The path
climbed up the side of the waterfall on slick boulders that had me
using all hands to avoid a nasty fall, but I survived.
Soon afterwards, around 5pm, the rain stopped and there were even
a couple of glimpses of the sun, as I continued over a high
moorland. I took the chance to hold and carry both my iPod and
radio, exposed to the wind and relative warmth and eventually the
radio began working again, but no joy on the iPod.
Around 6:30pm came the highlight of the day when the path reached
the high end of High Cup, a perfectly formed U-shaped glaciated
valley that fell away beneath me. It was breathtaking, made
all the better by the clearer skies. The path followed one
edge of the valley before gradually descending towards Dufton.
It was a race to see whether I could get to Dufton before 8pm, the
usual time for pubs to stop serving food. In the end, I
arrived at the pub exactly on 8pm, but saw the Youth Hostel
opposite, which was larger than I expected (and therefore more
likely to serve food), so I quickly went in and enquired.
Although dinner was long over, the kind and cheerful manager offered
me some of what was left, and I dumped my rucksack upstairs and came
down to eat. Andy, the Pennine Way hiker I had met a number of
times in the past three or four days, was also there. I then
checked in and ordered breakfast and a packed lunch for tomorrow,
given that there are few resupply opportunities. Still no
mobile phone or wireless internet coverage.
Tomorrow will be a shorter day and I'll aim to get to Alston
mid-afternoon in the hope of finding a B&B and mobile coverage.
There is a Youth Hostel so I may end up there.
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