Twice brewed to Bellingham

Up today for a fryup at 8.00am with a surprise visitor, J.P. of lejogplod fame!  
Finally got too meet after walking 40 days ! J.P started the day after us and our paths never crossed till now!
Breakfast inside from the campsite cafe we went via road through Hadrians wall and with more great views we followed farm tracks through the hilly land north of the wall, then into forestry land for about 5 miles were we met a group of Aussies that J.P had met before, lovely group who donated to our cause! Walked all day with them and I could repay there generosity by route finding.
Regular pennine way route to Bellingham and now off for dinner with the gang!

Alston to Twice brewed 20/5th

A day of relative ease walking along the South tyne way a semi abandoned railway all the way to Haltwhistle, as flat as you could want , just shut down the brain and leave the feet too it!
Pretty views all the way until we reach the Lambley viaduct which along with the old railway enabled mines further up in the pennines to deliver ore to Newcastle and carlisle until it was shut down in 1976, the viaduct is spectacular with beautiful views over the valley as you pass above .
Not long after this I meet Pat and her two dogs going in the direction of the viaduct. after lunch we meet again and walk together to Haltwhistle the center of Great Britain (see pic)(tho some might argue that) I must thank Pat here as she offered a cup of tea, if we had time, after a trip for provisions. Sadly time forced us to push on to twice brewed to set up camp at Windhield campsite near Hadrians wall.

Dufton to Alston 19/5th

Once again today we dodge the pennine way route and save a few miles of walking and ascent , a valley walk through Knock , Milburn and Kirkland past the seemingly none existant "hanging walls of mark Anthony" and up the fell following the Roman road the maiden way don't think the Romans would be too impressed by the state of it seems to have been used as a mining track most recently with a small gauge rail track now rusting away (pic to follow).
after the end of the three kilometer ascent to 1800 feet and Megs cairn on the shoulder of Melmerby Fell, we are just below the clouds with a cool windy descent over moor land to the Alston road where dodging cars for a few miles we take the longer but safer B road to Alston. ( pic of Alston cross and church)
After setting up the tent at the local site we go for dinner at the Cumberland pub for dinner along with two ladies Lynda and Karen who are walking the pennine way (pic to follow) and also camping at the same site.

Kirkby Stephen to Dufton 18/5

My original idea was to regain energy on rest days but after mondays horizontal day with book I was unable to sleep properly! Come morning I was shattered, walked into town got provisions and stumbled on my way had to have my first rest after one hour!
Still the weather was beautiful and going along the Eden Valley was easy enough.
My route has changed from plan to miss Appleby and head to Coupland where I bought new boots at the Penrith outdoor and survival center ( see pic) the old ones heels had worn badly and were causing knee and ligament pain, sad to just bin the old ones but I'm sure not carrying them too!
Just before the boot stop we stopped at a little chef for the Knicker bocker glory of the previous blog!.
The route change sent us through some pretty almost park land with stunning views of the snow capped cross fell with woodland and a carpet of blue bells just in full bloom.
Further on followed a track into Dufton via Dufton gill wood very pretty with the low sun making the fresh spring leaves glow while glinting off of the stream.
With the tent up (with the help of a little lad named Andrew who must have been really short of things to do!) we went to the Stag(ger(I know its a bad pun ok!)) Inn where during dinner lejogers Peter and Chris walked in (last seen in Launceston) sadly I was too tired to hang around for much of chat and hope to see them tomorrow in Alston. Funny how you meet up with people who take very different routes.

Kirkby Stephen to Dufton 18/5

My original idea was to regain energy on rest days but after mondays horizontal day with book I was unable to sleep properly! Come morning I was shattered, walked into town got provisions and stumbled on my way had to have my first rest after one hour!
Still the weather was beautiful and going along the Eden Valley was easy enough.
My route has changed from plan to miss Appleby and head to Coupland where I bought new boots at the Penrith outdoor and survival center ( see pic) the old ones heels had worn badly and were causing knee and ligament pain, sad to just bin the old ones but I'm sure not carrying them too!
Just before the boot stop we stopped at a little chef for the Knicker bocker glory of the previous blog!.
The route change sent us through some pretty almost park land with stunning views of the snow capped cross fell with woodland and a carpet of blue bells just in full bloom.
Further on followed a track into Dufton via Dufton gill wood very pretty with the low sun making the fresh spring leaves glow while glinting off of the stream.
With the tent up (with the help of a little lad named Andrew who must have been really short of things to do!) we went to the Stag(ger(I know its a bad pun ok!)) Inn where during dinner lejogers Peter and Chris walked in (last seen in Launceston) sadly I was too tired to hang around for much of chat and hope to see them tomorrow in Alston. Funny how you meet up with people who take very different routes.

Mini blog. For family

For this one I didn't need extra cusions!

Garsdale head to Kirkby Stephen

After the luxuries of my B&B stop and a great full English breakfast we had the additional luxury of a short 10 mile down hill route to kirkby Stephen , starting off staying on the road we made good time following the railway and crossing over a few times then diverting from the easier road to avoid a cycle road race we followed a path promising two castles enroute the first Pendragon castle I think would have disappointed its name sake as it is far from in its days of glory! But still worth a visit with more time to stop, the second (see pic) Lammerside castle seems to be abandoned with more sheep (sorry lamb pun) visiting than people.
From here it was a simple stroll past Wharton hall (also half ruined!) Into our campsite and an early finish with a day off on Monday to follow.

Horton to Garsdale head 15 th May

After having fallen asleep to a noisy bustling campsite the noise started again at 5.30am now I'm an early riser but this commotion meant something big was about to happen, looking out the tent the half full site of last night was packed, with no spare room anywhere , the penny dropped as hoards of walkers streamed by the site to Pen y Ghent a peak towering over us to the east, we were in the midst of a three peaks challenge ! As we headed off, the flow of walkers still hadn't diminished and coaches were bringing more folk in, feel sorry for the locals if this is a regular Saturday ! 
Our path lay north so we didn't see the flood of walkers for a while.
As we had left about the same time and as the Ribble and Pennine ways shared the same path we walked out of the village with Steve the Aussie lejoger ,2 kilometers out of town we parted company and Alfie and I had the valley side walk to ourselves (and the sheep) the path wobbled up and down to gearstones outdoors center (named after a rock formation nearby) at this point I really regretted missing a fryup at the Horton cafe as my energy levels plummeted , thank god I bought a pack of jelly babies to munch on! Up over gale moor and down into the next valley we were treated to stunning views of the railway with huge viaducts spanning the undulating hillside (pic to follow).
We made the right decision to go into the valley as at the bottom the Sportsman pub was open for lunch! Another lovely person , the landlady, donated 10 pounds (thankyou) .
Now with every down comes an up and the road out of the valley was STEEP! 4 miles of steep gradients up and down and we reached garsdale head and the moorcock pub , sitting next to the pub was a B&B with vacancies......say no more but the shower was great and the bed soft (eh Alfie!)

near Holton West to Horton in Ribblesdale

After a successful wild camp ( ie the farmer didn't find us! ) we headed for our first section of the Ribble way a pleasingly flat ten miles along the river valley the trail takes its name from quite uneventful , we then reached Settle for a rations restock where as we packed the rucksack an anonymous lady donated 10 pounds to the charity!
Then into the talbot inn for a pint and a jacket spud for lunch.
With cracking views of the local fells we arrived early at our campsite and to reach our official half way point !
On arrival at my favourite eccentric campsite we are invited into the reception marquee, and given a fine single malt whisky and offer of soup.....very nice too! Also in the marquee was another lejoger named Steve this one from Australia ( see pic ) another friend for Alfie :) 

Ponden to near Halton West

After a night kept awake by the freezing temperature we had the additional pleasure of the only other camper on site insisting on coming over to chat in just his underwear.........thanks......
After a hasty exit, we headed up onto Icornshaw moor in quite sunny conditions that we both seemed to tired to appreciate, a long slog on b roads to Earby for food and we headed out to West Marton where a little tea shop ( shock not beer! ) fullfilled a growing need for a good cuppa, another donation wad received here, thanks Margret and Ruth.
Finally the route took us through poorly way marked but picturesque rolling farmland to our wild camp for the night.

white house Inn to Ponden

After a breezey night next to the Inn we walked in a northerly direction past three reservoir presumably for the Rotherham area which had been casting a sodium glare over the tent all night, why do we need so many lights at three in the morning? Grr!.
The path curved eastwards passed the stoodley pike monument to head downhill into the verticle town of Hebden Bridge built on the nearly sheer sides of the Calder valley, I wasn't aware as I descended that this place is the Glastonbury of the north! Tho with a far more sensible and less trashy northern approach (Nora Batty may have approved!).
the path north out of town led through a place called Midgehole which happily didn't live up too its name, along the crimson dean valley we met Dan who had started his own lejog almost 24 years earlier than our start and was still easily keeping pace with us! , we parted company near Drop farm and within half a mile our path disapeared and we were officially lost, our path turned up about a quarter mile east of where we wanted it ! But at least the upside of getting lost was we turned up at the Silent Inn just as they started to serve an early bird menu, very much recommend this place all oak beams and dog friendly to boot!.
This is being typed in the pub so our next stop at ponden house campsite is still ahead......hope its not closed down!

Crowden to The White House Inn 11,5th

An eventful day kicked off at 8.45 with the pretty walk up hill under laddaw rocks to the path up to the top of Black hill. at the top the view was the best I've had from this point on any of my earlier walks a good ten miles and perhaps as far as Newcastle, the descent was painful for darrell as he seems to have jarred his knees badly obviously slowed by this when we descended into Marsden he made the brave decision to catch a train home rather than push on and slow our progress, don't know if I could have made such s tough decision , cheers mate!.
Now on our own Alfie and I headed uphill to Denshaw moor and rejoined the pennine way to pass over the M62 JP to the top of blackstone edge, passed the Aiggin stone ( a medieval sign post! ) and down to the White house Inn sadly another dog unfriendly pub so we set up camp nearby and supplied our own dinner pilau rice and ham ......yummy......