Week 10 - 700 Miles and Back to Basics
Bloody hell, week 10 already, it seems like only yesterday and a lifetime ago I was standing at Land’s End and now I’m in the North Pennines, more than 700 miles along the route from Land’s End to John O’Groats. That’s 700 done and about 500 left, from now on it’s down hill all the way!
Other highlights of the past few days were a visit from Alison Mosley on Saturday who became our 11th visitor on the trip; she joined us for a walk along the River Tees from Middleton to High Force through what is probably the last spectacular display of blue bells, cow slips, ladies bedstraw and other spring flowers I’ll encounter on this walk. The other highlight was to have been my arrival at High Cup Nick, one of England’s most unusual and unique geological features; unfortunately a severe case of Pennine Weather reduced what should have been an exhilarating high point to a cold wet battle against the wind and rain in hill fog.
Sandra and Alison at High Force waterfall on the River Tees
The Pennines can be broken down into rough thirds; Edale to Malham are the southern Pennines, dark and brooding bogs where the old industrial towns lap up to the edge of the hills, from Malham to Middleton-in-Teesdale it’s the limestone dales, dry valleys, white cliffs and drystone, then north of Middleton we’re into the barren wilderness of the northern moors.
I’d backpacked the southern Pennies for old times sake and must have waxed eloquent about the pleasures of camping because we decided to eschew the comforts of the van, get the old tent out of the loft and camp from Malham to Middleton. It was great, the old Vango Hilton (Vango Force 10 Mark IV) was a real blast from the past and Arthur took to camping as a natural born camper. However no camping trip is complete without a decent amount of rain and we certainly had a decent amount of it. Actually it mostly rained at night and we only had a couple of really wet days but we’re now back in the van and the tent is draped over the banister drying out.
Arthur declining to doze in either the tent or his bed, preferring our bags of clothes in the back of the car
We stayed at three campsites, the first two were fine but the last, Highside Farm near Middleton was spectacular, perched high above the Tees valley it only had five pitches but provided heated toilets and showers. The owners, Mark and Helen Tully were fantastic and on our last night invited us to join them and another couple for drinks, we finally got to bed about midnight, which might explain some of my sluggishness walking over to Dufton the next day.
Despite the rain the walking was a pleasure, we started at Malham with its spectacular limestone cove and associated scenery; the Yorkshire Dales are always a pleasure to visit, huge rolling hills covered in lush grass divided into a random chequer board of fields by thousands of miles of white drystone walls. An abundance of rain keeps the hills green while the streams and rivers play hide and seek across and through the limestone, disappearing into sink holes to reappear miles away at springs after carving some of the county’s biggest cave systems.
Sandra and Arthur against the backdrop of Malham Cove
After several days of easy progress, at Keld, the well drained limestone and green turf of the Dales gave way to impervious sandstone and acid blanket bog where a few hardy sheep pick a miserable living from the poor vegetation and intrepid long distance walkers flounder around up to their shins in a sodden, pathless morass as they seek to force a way northwards.
North of Tan Hill the path degenerates somewhat
As a bit of light relief from the bogs, I also had to cross the A66, this major road links the M6 and A1(M) from Penrith to Scotch Corner, I had been hoping for a bridge to rival the M62 footpath bridge but the engineers this far north are a lot more prosaic, and when the A66 was upgraded to dual carriageway they simply buried a bit of corrugated pipe and called it a pedestrian tunnel.
Pedestrian Access Route, aka a bit of buried pipe providing safe passage from one side of the A66 to the other
There are two schools of thought about these bogs, one view sees them as an impoverished species poor environment which should be actively re-generated by reducing the grazing and encouraging new planting. The other view and the one on all the information boards erected by various agencies views these moors as rare examples of sub-arctic blanket bog offering a rare and almost unique habitat for a variety of birds and animals.
The birds in particular are spectacular, nationally curlews and lapwings are on the endangered list, but up on these moors they appear in abundance, along with red grouse, black grouse and a host of others I’m not qualified to name, so if for no other reason than to protect the bird breeding areas I’ll back keeping the moors as they are.
I had been looking forward to the walk over the spine of the Pennines from Middleton in Yorkshire (or possibly Durham) to Dufton in Cumbria but the weather had other ideas and what should have been a great walk with spectacular views became a cold wet trudge in appalling weather. However the pub in Dufton was open, which was a huge improvement on the one in Langdon Beck whose fresh coat of paint and an abundance of workmen’s supplies hinted at refurbishment and hospitality at some time in the distant future, but, “not yet sunshine, you’ve just got to sit outside in the cold and damp and hope Sandra can find you in an area that has zero mobile phone or data coverage”.
By the end of this week, Sunday, I’ve reached Dufton, having finished with the Middle Pennines; ahead lies a hard section over Cross Fell and on to Hadrian’s Wall where the Great Whin Sill marks the end of the Pennines as they transition into the Cheviots with only the Scotland beyond.
Below is a link to a video showing some of the rivers of the middle Pennines, the final sequence shows the conditions as I went from Middleton over to Dufton.
Here are the week and trip totals.
Week’s Total :- 84 Miles 9263 Feet of Ascent, 198,908 Paces, 37.75 Hours of Walking.
Walk Total to date:- 727 Miles 79,609 Feet of Ascent, 1,635,568 Paces, 332.75Hours of Walking.
Land’s End to John O’Groats walk 57% completed.