We were up and breakfasted early again. The pattern most mornings is that Tricia is far more organised than I am, and then she is sat waiting ready to go long before I am… Today I was a bit better, and so we were away at 8:45am. First job was to walk back down to the Pennine Way, where we would walk along the Tees.

When we got there, we decided gators might be needed, as the path was overgrown and wet from the previous nights rain, so a little delay. Tricia of course had hers on immediately, I was struggling and cursing with mine… Still, once sorted we were on our way.

It turned out to be a beautiful morning for walking, warm, and after the first mile an excellent path to walk along. The scenery was fantastic, we went up over a hill, and on the other side you could see the Tees rushing alongside rocky hills. Marvellous. After 3.5 miles we came across ‘High Force’ where the Tees goes into a waterfall of about 70 feet. Fantastic… I could still be sat there now enjoying it :-).

We followed the river downstream another 1.5 miles to ‘Low Force’, another waterfall on a smaller scale. We then pushed on for Middleton-in-Tees. This was our lunch spot. A lovely little place, we had a light lunch, shopped for a few bits and then returned to the Pennine Way. We were now on our way to Baldersdale. We were due there for 4:30 to be picked up. Out of Middleton we had a straight climb of a mile or so.  the path wasn’t clear so we had to stop a few times to check our position. At one point we were on the wrong path, and had to correct by walking to a road to get back on the Pennine Way. It is a bit of a mixed bag… Some areas clearly signed, others bewilderingly vague. We marched on, and it was a march… We made our meeting point just after 4:30. About 14-15 miles done today.

And it didn’t rain on us today. Hoorah!

We were driven to Cotherstone. We are in the Fox and Hounds overnight. A small trip down the stairs to the bar tonight. Just as well, my legs are tired after today, so it was just about all I could mnage.

We were up at 7, breakfasting at 7:30. We talked with another couple who were doing the Pennine Way south to north, unlike us who are doing north to south, and swapped some advice on things to come. We were scheduled for 12 miles today… But before we could set off we had to redress the back of my left foot… Two burst blisters made for a very sore foot, painful to walk with, and yucky to look at. Tricia applied the necessary, and off I hobbled…

It took about an hour before the foot became a little more comfortable and I could pick up pace with Tricia. By this time we were climbing out of Dufton, on our way to High Cut…. It was 3.5 miles of gradual climb, but when we got there, the views were breathtaking. Tricia took about a million (approx) photo’s. :-).

We moved on, the weather was good, we even had some sun, and the underfoot conditions were much better. We stopped for a break after 8 miles, before we moved on to ‘Cauldron Snout’, a lovely waterfall. Tricia again was clicking away, and loved it, she would have stayed all day… But there was still some walking to do.

We followed the river around, it was a lovely walk, a mixture of slabs to walk on, boards, and rocks. It was a good workout. We had hoped the weather would hold, but at 3:30pm the forecasted rain arrived, ruining an otherwise lovely day. We did the last mile in the rain before arriving at our farmhouse B&B.

It was the earliest we had finished a walk, so we had a lazy few hours before going off to the local for an evening meal… The local being the best part of a mile walk away! And it was raining :-(.  But the food was good. The B&B is basic, but comfortable and clean…

I woke with some trepidation. Today we had a 16 miler scheduled, and with the slog of the previous day’s, we were both concerned about how long it would take. So we had an early breakfast, with the idea of leaving by 8:30am. Except I didn’t get myself particularly well organised, and so it was just after 9am. I got stern words from the Sgt Major. :-). The forecast for the day was ok… Cloudy but dry, and we dressed appropriately.

We gradually got into our stride. The track we were walking was so much better than we had been experiencing. But then the heavens opened on us. A quick rummage in the rucksack for rain coats. But in a way we were getting used to this and ploughed on. The track was climbing up over the two hours we were walking up, and we did around 5 miles in that time, so we were pleased with that. We had a break at a place called ‘Greg’s Hut’ which is a small two roomed house / cottage for use by walkers. Tricia changed out of her sodden trousers and into waterproof trousers. A drink and a little bite and we were back out and on the climb to Cross Fell. The highest point on the Pennine Way. We were pretty pleased with ourselves at the top. Here is Tricia starting out this morning… Not the blue sky. Didn’t last long. And the ‘Greg’s Hut’.

It was very windy, and the final climb was sodden, but apart from that walking conditions was good. Off of Cross Fell, down and then up again, and the wind increased – it was fearsome. Staying upright was a challenge! After 2pm we stopped for lunch where there was a little respite from the wind, and then marched on. The last stretch to DuftonI seemed to drag a bit, but we arrived just after 5pm… And had completed the 16 miles in pretty much the same time it had taken to do 10 the previous day. Here we are at the top of Cross Fell.

We were at the Stag Inn for an evening meal. A glass of wine with the meal :-).

We are prepared for tomorrow, and hope to make an early start. Boots are all dry and ready to go.

Only concern is the back of my left foot… A very nasty  blister, which seems to be getting worse rather than better… Mainly because every step aggravates it. Hopefully it will start to clear up.

A decent breakfast, and our boots having dried out, saw us in good spirits ahead of today’s walk. We were scheduled to walk about 10.5 miles today. Our B&B host started to drive us back to Knarsdale… We just turned out the drive, and I realised I had forgotten my walkers pole. So Tricia jumped out and went and got it. Under the railway bridge in Knarsdale we disembarked, put our gators on and set off.

Not long into the day we got our first soaking. We ended up taking refuge under a sycamore tree…. Then we set off again, and the rain came again. And this became the pattern of the day. The rain came, we would shelter if we could and wait for it to pass, as when it did rain, it was proper full on rain! We were heading for Alston, it was about 6 miles in to the walk, but with the rain, the soggy conditions, progress was slow. It took us nearly 4 hours to do 6 miles, and we were both getting a little frustrated with the weather. Some pictures… First one of the wall with the tree in the background.. That tree saved us from a soaking, and there is one of Tricia under it under it taking cover. There is also a rather overgrown part of the walkway, bit of a surprise when so many people do it. I didn’t get to take too many pictures during the rest of the day as I ran out of memory on the iPhone…

We arrived at Alston around 1:30pm, and sheltered in a tea room for a while. Always a good place :-). We got some provisions in the local Co-Op and set off again. The afternoon relented and didn’t rain on us until we were close to Garrigill…. Again we took shelter. Ironically as we at last walked into Garrigill, the sun shone. It was only 10 miles or so, but had yet again been a slog, and hard work.

The B&B was lovely, with excellent drying facilities… We went to the George and Dragon across the road, a proper old pub, the food was basic, but good.

Today completed a week of walking. Kirk Yetholm to Garrigill = 82.5 miles of the Pennine Way done. Of course we have walked more, up and down onto the way for accommodation…. But nearly a third walked of the official route.

A big breakfast … Cereal, porridge, bacon and scrambled egg :-). We were packed and ready to go at 9:45 am, just after a rain shower. We walked back up to the Roman Army musuem, which opened at 10am… We spent an hour and a bit looking around, had a coffee / tea, then set on our way, with about 10.5 miles on the schedule for today.

At first the weather was with us, we went past Thirlwell Castle, had a minor moment of losing the Pennine Way, got ourselves corrected, got up and over a golf course and marched on.  We made good progress, until we reached Blenkinsopp Common. It had just started raining, and we then found the common to be very soggy, which of course slowed us down. The rain stopped, and we had kind of dried off, when it started again. This time we took some refuge under a beech tree until the worst passed…. Even saw some blue sky. The sun was, good, we dried again…

We lost direction slightly, but again recovered, only to get slowed in boggy conditions. This was pretty much the state of the walkway then for the rest of the walk. The weather had one last hit for us, about 1 mile from our destination, the heavens opened and gave us a soaking :-(. I have to say at this point I was all for having a full on tantrum about the whole thing…. Anyhow, we made our way down to Knarsdale, and to the Kirkstyle Inn. It was July 1st today… But weather was such that they had a fire going! We took our sodden boots off and put them in front of the fire. The food was good, plenty of gluten free options for me :-). Just before 8pm we were picked up and driven to the B&B, and the drying out process started all over again.

We awoke to a room littered with items of clothing hanging in various places. All drying out. After breakfast came the job of re-packing. We only just managed to do this in time, as the luggage company turned up to move it on to our next destination. Overnight we had left our boots next to the radiator to try and dry out. We didn’t want to pack damp boots as that would put us over the weight limit, and I felt I had to walk in my boots for the support. I had taken the insoles out of the boots, and put them on the radiator… It was when I went to collect one of mine that it slipped behind the radiator. Every time I attempted to retrieve it I just seemed to push it further down the back. Because the insole is stacked slightly on the heel, it is not completely flat and hence became wedged. So, some ingenuity on my part with my walking pole (no, not this is not a euphemism), and persistence from Tricia meant we finally retrieved it… But boy oh boy for a little while I didn’t think we were going to retrieve it.

The weather looked good… Cloudy but fine. We were only scheduled to walk 6.5 miles on the Pennine Way today, all along Hadrian’s Wall. So, knowing we would have time we detoured off track and visited ‘Vindolanda’, a Roman fort.There was a museum, as well as the outline of the original buildings, and we were able to watch archeologists digging at the site, all very interesting. We had a tea / coffee there, and then moved on. We were back up on the wall around 1:30pm.

The walk itself was terrific. The wall adds to the scenery, most of which is pretty breathtaking, and you feel you are walking in the footsteps of history. We reached the highest point on the wall, and carried on… The terrain was pretty much up and down. There was a reason for this being the shortest walk… It was still hard work. We rested a couple of times, and enjoyed the views, and talked with other walkers we bumped into.

About 5pm, we came to the Roman Army museum near Greenhead. At Vindolanda we had purchased a ticket for both places, and so we went in, a tea / coffee, then we saw a film on Hadrian’s wall, but then had to leave as it closed at 6pm. A 5 minute walk down into Greenhead and we found our accommodation for the evening. After eating we sat in the bar, where I typed up yesterday’s blog… As it was the only place I could get any wifi.

Our boots had been slightly damp when we set out, but had dried out during the day. A pleasant day, very different from the previous… We didn’t get rained on :-).