Wooler, with visitors!

The first morning we went on a walk that took us out of the back of the campsite and up to the summit of Gains Law, one of the Cheviot hills which stands at 1,030 feet and offers fantastic views over the Cheviots on the Western side and out to the coast on the East. We had our lunch by the trig point on the top of the hill and then headed back over Humbleton Hill, a 960 foot hill which has the remains of a fort on the top, we then finished our 5 mile walk by heading straight down the hill and onto the lane at the back of the campsite. That evening Neil and Phil headed into Wooler to watch the first England game of the world cup, 1:1 with the US, was disappointing.














Slightly hungover, Neil and Phil headed out on their bikes the next morning, the 16 mile route took them into the heart of the Cheviots with some excellent climbs and descents, we had a few stops for photos and Phil got a puncture at one stage. We were both surprised that despite being in a National Park on a Sunday we only saw 2 bikers and 2 sets of walkers! The weather and the views were perfect for biking and it meant our hangovers were soon cleared and we felt much more sprightly when we got back.
After lunch we headed out in Tonks to Bamburgh where we walked through the village admiring the huge castle. We headed over the sand dunes and out onto the long beach behind the castle. The dogs loved it, Roxy and Prince in particular running around like loons and splashing in the water. We went in for a paddle but the water was bloody freezing so after a while the shoes were back on, we had a play in the dunes before heading back to the village where we had an ice cream each!




Neil had to pack up his stuff and head off the next morning, he left early so that he could stop off on the way home to go for a ride at Whinlatter in the Lake District. Once we had waved him off we popped into the village for a mooch around while we waited for our next guests, Marilyn and Ian, to arrive.
They arrived at around 5pm and Prince gave them an incredibly vocal welcome! Ben (the dog, 16 last week!) came too and stamped his authority over Prince straight away as we sat in the awning and had a couple of drinks and a catch up.


Phil got up at very early the next morning so that he could go and check out the downhill tracks he had read about in the TIC the day before. I found 2 very steep and twisty narrow tracks which I rode several times before heading up to the top of the forest where I found even more downhill runs, these were much less steep but much faster, with hand built berms, jumps and drops amongst the roots and rocks. Again, I did several runs before it was time to head back. Showered and fed, we headed out to pick up the folks before we all jumped in Tonks and made for Holy Island. None of us had ever been before, so it was a new experience to be driving over the causeway with the tide completely out. We passed the emergency tide shelter which we have seen photos of people using when they have been stranded by the tide. We parked up in the main car park, and Mum and Ian decided to jump on the shuttle bus to the castle as Ben’s little legs might not make the walk (he’s over 100 in human years!). We went into the castle (Lindesfarne) which was originally built in the 1570’s to protect the harbour using stones from the previously dissolved priory. The fort had an uneventful military history and the soldiers eventually left in 1893 when the building was acquired by Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life magazine who then converted the castle into a holiday retreat. The castle is now in the care of the National Trust who have restored the decoration and furniture to how Hudson would have had it. We had a very enjoyable explore around the labyrinth of rooms, corridors and staircases, as well as a look at the view from the battery on the top of the castle before heading back down and out to have a walk around the grounds. The former lime kilns were built in the 1860’s to take advantage of the quality limestone available on the island, they were used for around 40 years before manufacture stopped and the kilns fell into disrepair. We also looked at the walled garden, designed in 1911 by noted gardener Gertrude Jekyll, and recently restored to its former glory by the National Trust, it is a summer flower garden so is best viewed at the height of the English summer.
We then headed back towards the village past a rubbish bagpipe busker and on to the Priory. The priory is now in the hands of English Heritage, but it was originally founded in AD 635, and St Cuthbert, prior of Lindesfarne, who died in 687 is still the most celebrated of the priory’s holy men. The existing priory was built in 1150, and a small community lived there until the suppression of the monastery in 1537, soon afterwards the priory was dismantled and the stones used to build the castle. We had a walk around the grounds of the priory and a look inside the nearby church (where they had a very spooky wooden statue of some monk pall bearers carrying a coffin) after which we headed back to Tonks to avoid getting trapped by the tide!


The next day we met up again and went to Dunstanburgh Castle. We parked in the car park by Embleton, and walked the 1 mile along the footpath up to the very imposing castle ruins (you can only access the castle by foot). It was built in 1313, and was subsequently strengthened and improved, the castle saw numerous military action before it fell into decay. We had a stroll around the impressive ruins (and even up to the top of one of the towers) and enjoyed the great views from the castle both out to sea and over the land below. Luckily the sun stayed out for the duration and for the mile walk back along the side of a golf course.
We then decided to make a trip to Alnwick to have a glimpse of the castle and to have a look at the bookshop. Barter Books was founded in 1991 by Mary Manly and her husband in the front room of his factory in the former Alnwick railway station. It is a bookshop based on the swap system and is now one of the largest secondhand bookshops in Britain with over 350,000 books. Even the listed station building it is housed in is impressive, and the shop has made a big effort to keep the railway theme running throughout the shop. A few books were bought by all before we wandered into the town centre where we had our lunch sat outside a café on the market square. Suitably refreshed we had a walk down the town and down the hill next to the castle entrance where we walked along the river bank which gave us a very impressive view of the huge castle which was used as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films and is still a private residence.


Mum and Ian had to leave the next day. They arrived at the van just before 9:00, and we piled their car full with some stuff we decided we didn’t need (thanks you two!) before reluctantly handing back Ben and waving them goodbye. We then headed out for a walk with the dogs into the nearby woods, Phil took his bike and we walked up the steep hill where he had a bit of a play on the downhill tracks being chased by Prince and Smudge, Linda sustained a major injury (scuffed knee) when she lost traction and had a crash, then Phil had a puncture which put paid to all the fun. On the way back we stopped where a stream went through a pipe under the road so that Prince could have a play in the pipe and the pool on the other side. Back at the van we were visited by the campsite ducks and their children on a few occasions, and they came over again to say bye.

We have now moved to Melrose Caravan Club site, crossing the border for the first time into Scotland!

Hexham and Hadrian's Wall

We were expecting rain for our first day in Hexham, so were pleasantly surprised to see there was none. Sharing the site with us were 4 other caravans and around 7 tents, I don’t know if it is something we said/did, but every one of them packed up and left this morning! Only one new caravan arrived, and even they just hurriedly put the legs down and the wheel clamp on and promptly left. We are now a little paranoid! Anyway, we carried on our day by first taking the dogs for a walk from the site up to the well preserved remains of Hadrian’s Wall we walked along the wall for a while before heading back to the van, it’s amazing to think that they built this huge wall, 80 miles long and 15ft high in places without a single JCB or dumper truck!.
We popped into Hexham in Tonks and on the way back we stopped to have a look at an English Heritage managed turret which was signposted from the road, but after getting out of the car we were disappointed to find that no dogs were allowed, so we jumped back in the car and headed for Chesters. Chesters is a roman fort which sat along the course of the wall just where it crosses the River North Tyne, it is managed by English Heritage and is a well excavated site that combined with the information boards and museum leaves little to the imagination. A garrison, officers quarters, commanders house, roman baths and turrets are all clearly visibly and well explained on the site. We spent a good amount of time exploring the site and the museum, and despite the fact that it started raining half way through we still stopped for an ice cream from the on-site café!

It was a bit rainy the next day, but it seemed to clear up later in the morning so we decided to head into Newcastle for a look around. It was only a half hour drive into the city, and we quickly found a car park by the Town Moor, an area of parkland bigger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath put together. We took the dogs here first, and had a little walk on the tarmac paths while trying to dodge the walkers, cyclists and cow pats (Freemen of the town are allowed to graze cattle on it). We then headed towards the city centre through Leazes Park, the oldest park in the town established in 1873, which has recently had a £3.7m refurbishment and boasts a lake, a maze, bandstand, sports facilities and lots of other park-type-stuff. We had our lunch sat on a bench by the lake before heading through the park to St James’ Park, the home of Newcastle United FC, and Mofasa’s stomping ground (we saw a few dodgy characters there, so that explains it!) we walked around the ground before heading off into Chinatown with its Chinese arch and many restaurants. While we were here Linda popped into the Chinese supermarket and got some bits and bobs. We then followed the historic town walls past the catholic cathedral of St Mary and made our way to the river. It was around here that disaster struck. We found a fountain where the dogs could have a drink, and while leaning over to encourage Smudge to have a drink Phil heard a ‘plop’ - the Ipaq pocket PC had dropped into the water. It was quickly recovered, was still on, and appeared to be ok. Soon afterwards though, it switched itself off maybe never to come on again. It was a sad day indeed. Still, we carried on past the railway station and on to the Tyne Bridge, built in 1928 and designed by the same people who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, the Tyne Bridge has become a defining symbol of Tyneside. While we were there hundreds of seagulls were nesting on the bridge, and as we peered over we could see numerous chicks in the nests, the downside of this of course is the layer of white bird poo that the bridge is steadily being coated in. After crossing the bridge we walked past The Sage, a theatre and events venue opened in 2004, it is a highly unusual stainless steel and curved glass building that looks a bit like a slug, but is very impressive nonetheless. Next up was the Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge which was opened in September 2001. We were lucky enough to time it perfectly as the bridge was raising to let two Royal Navy patrol boats from HMS Calliope pass through. While we watched the bridge slowly rise and fall Phil asked one of the gate operators how often it opens, he said it’s only once a day unless there is a special occasion like the boat race on (it actually had to be raised twice this time as of the two boats that had gone through one needed to come back and was too slow the first time – this never happens according to the man Phil was talking to so we were very lucky to see it!). Linda was so excited by the sight of the bridge raising that she threw her phone on the floor, luckily it wasn’t as disastrous as the Ipaq incident and the phone was just scuffed. Once the bridge was down we realised we didn’t have much time to get back to the car park, so we hot footed it back past the castle keep, the oldest structure in the city dating back to the 11th century, and back to Tonks, 6.5 miles walked and we were pretty tired..

Rain, rain, rain. It rained all morning so we stayed in the van until around 2:00 when the rain had become lighter, so we decided to head into Hexham. We parked up in Tyne Green Country Park on the outskirts of the town next to Hexham Bridge, the bridge was built in 1793, following two failed attempts in 1770 and 1780 to build bridges on the site both of which only lasted a year before collapsing! The present stone arch bridge has 9 spans and has faired much better than its predecessors. We walked through the country park between the river and the golf course before crossing the railway line and heading into the town. We soon stumbled on Hexham House which is now the home of the local council, but the gardens at the back of the house are open to the public. We had a stroll around the garden and over the stream until we found ourselves in the Abbey grounds, which we crossed over to the 11th century Abbey. We then headed into the town as we needed a Post Office, Phil had become an uncle again for the 4th time on Monday 31st, and his new niece Sophie needed a present which we posted off.

Rain, rain, sideways rain is what we woke up to the next day, so once again we hibernated in the van until the afternoon. While we moped about I got the Ipaq out of intensive care and gave it a try to see if there was any life. None. It was a very sad moment, and through the tears we decided to prepare for the funeral. I fully assembled the stricken body so that it would look nice for the coffin, and gave its power button one last prod. That’s when the miracle happened, the screen flickered, it blinked, and Ipaq went into boot-up mode! Before long Windows was up and running and the GPS was telling me where we were! Jubilation! Celebration! Joy! The brave little soldier had been for a swim, died, and come back to life, yippee! I put it in our tin of dry rice for the day to make sure it was completely dry.
Anyway, in the afternoon we headed down the road to the Twice Brewed Inn, where we had soup (cream of carrot and ginger – yum yum!) for lunch and a real ale each before heading up the hill and on to Hadrian’s Wall where we walked for about a mile along the wall to a trig point before about-turning and heading back to Tonks. We drove a couple of miles further where we stopped at Cawfields to have a look at one of the milecastles on the wall, a little walk past a former quarry which is now full of water took us to the wall and the milecastle ruin, it was in a field full of very nosey cows, so after a quick look around we made a sharp exit and headed home. Back at the van we had an “Ipaq is alive” party before bed!

We headed out to Bellingham up the road today and did a walk up Hareshaw Lynn which is a beautiful walk up to a waterfall. On the walk we saw a few nice footbridges, lots of waterfalls, a red squirrel, and a dumper truck moving huge rocks to shore up the river banks. Once back at the car we had our picnic before heading to the farm shop up the road, chatted to the farmer about how hard farming is before we saw the sheep being moved down the road and the pigs in the field opposite. We then headed over to Wark forest and parked up in a small village called Stonehaugh, where we did a 1.5 mile walk which was waymarked by the Forestry Commission, it was a lovely forest walk, very peaceful and at the start we saw some deer having a drink in the river.

We have now moved to Highburn House, a private site in Wooler, and following a nice welcome from the owner and we followed him in his car up to the pitch which was a great spot at the top of the site with a good view.

Barnard Castle

We’ve got visitors again! We had arranged to meet Linda’s parents in Pateley Bridge, a small town about an hour and a half away from our site in Barnard Castle. Once there we said our hello’s and headed into the town where we had a mooch around, we popped to a picture shop where the parents bought a lovely print of a Warfedale scene by a local artist, we also had an ice cream each from a little sweet shop. Then after putting the painting in the car we headed down the riverside footpath where we spotted a sign for a pub. Never one to turn down a beer garden, Dad said lets go sample the ale, and no-one disagreed. The Harefield Hall turned out to be quite a grand hotel which looked like it was in the throws of a renovation; we sat out the front under one of the many parasols and enjoyed a drink before heading back to the town and going for a sit in the park enjoying the sun. We then headed on to Knaresborough which is where Mum and Dad were staying, it is a lovely scenic town built high on the banks of the river Nidd, which is the same river we were walking alongside earlier. This much further down the river is much wider, and the town has an impressive viaduct to show for it as well as some very steep streets which lead up to the ruins of the large castle. Later on in the afternoon we went out to a pub in Whixley which has an extremely popular carvery, and we could see why. Yum.

Rain, rain, rain the next day so we moped around in the morning wandering what to do. In the afternoon we headed up to Bishop Aukland, a larger town about 15 miles up the road from us. Our brief impression of Bishop Aukland wasn’t good, it seemed to be a town in decline, and there wasn’t much to see (this might not have been helped by the foul weather), we bought a few necessities, including a new bed for the dog, and headed back. In the afternoon we headed out to the Tan Hill Inn, which sat on the bleak Pennine moorland at 1,732ft claims to be the highest pub in Great Britain, after going for a short walk along the Pennine Way we found ourselves a nice corner in the pub where we settled into the sofas and had a couple of drinks!


The weather was better the next day so we headed to Hamsterley Forest, a large Forestry Commission operation with a visitor centre, forest drive and multiple car parks. Phil took his bike and rode around 10 miles on the black XC route, it was a good ride, and for once was more deserved of the ‘black’ tag, some of the sections were worth repeating a few times, and even some of the technical climbs were good fun. Meanwhile Linda followed the 4.5 mile Orange walking route with the dogs. It was a little disappointing with very few viewpoints (unlike other forest walks she has done), and the track joined the mtb routes in various places without any warning for the walkers. Back at the very busy car park we had our lunch on a tucked away picnic bench before heading back.
On the way home we stopped off at the English Heritage owned Barnard Castle which towers above the river Tees on the edge of the town of the same name. It was founded in the 12th century and was later developed at numerous times before numerous battles and the use of its stone on nearby Raby castle left it ruined. We had a walk around the ruins of the castle in the sun and enjoyed the views down the Tees valley, we also explored the various chambers and rooms you can go in Before calling it a day and heading home.



This morning the caravan repair man was due to arrive to repair our cracked shower tray, we had to hang around waiting for him and the job took him a couple of hours as we had to wait for the foam he had used to set. He suggested that Yarm, where we were going to meet Linda’s Mum and Dad later was not as good as Northallerton. So when they rang to say they had arrived at Yarm and couldn’t find any parking longer than an hour we suggested Northallerton. We left an hour later, by which time the parents had done Yarm (seen it, got the T shirt) and were waiting for us in the Northallerton Long stay car park! While we were with them we had a good walk around Northallerton, sampled the beer in two pubs, as well as checking out the beer gardens in several others. Then we had to say our goodbyes and head our separate ways to forage for our tea!


We had planned to go to the Appleby horse fair today to witness the Pikeys doing their dodgy deals, but in the end we both decided against it as we’d seen enough of them on the side of the local roads, so we had a lazy morning before deciding to head out to the local reservoirs we had seen a few days before. It was only a few miles up the road and we found ourselves in a deserted car park next to Blackton Reservoir, we had a walk over the dam and ate our lunch on a deserted (again) picnic table. We continued our walk and came across a sluice gate which had a very powerful volume of water rushing through it and we could see it pushing up out of the middle of the reservoir below us, as the water rushed up to the surface it looked like a giant boil in the middle of the reservoir! We carried on up the hill hoping to pick up the Pennine Way where we would be able to see the other reservoirs on the other side of the valley, it wasn’t until we were chased by a constantly barking little farm dog and various groups of sheep that we thought we might be on the wrong track! (It wasn’t until later. when I looked at the OS map that I realised we were at the wrong reservoir! We had forgotten the Ipaq, which we use for GPS and OS mapping.) We headed back via an alternative route to avoid the yapping little mutt before jumping in Tonks and heading home


We have now moved to the next Camping and Caravan Certificated Site, but the journey was a little fraught because the description in the book bore no resemblance to the roads we were driving on, at one point we had to stop in a farm entrance and phone for directions. Phil had to do a quick bit of caravan reversing at the side of the main road so that we could turn round and get back on track. Arriving at Greencarts Farm we were welcomed by the farm dog, Bracken, as well as the very laid back owner. He told us to pitch anywhere we liked in the huge unmowed field. There were a few tents and 5 vans already on site in the long grass, but the field was so big there was plenty of room. After some umming and arring, and some help from our neighbour with our electric hookup extenson we ended up pitching somewhere in the middle of the field looking at the great view!

Lake District

We vowed to revisit Honister pass and Buttermere, and today we did. This time we stopped at the Honister Slate Mine visitor centre for a look around. We didn’t pay the £5 parking charge, but had a good look round the shop and the exhibition which had some interesting stories about some of the mining characters, they also offer mine tours and walks, but they had to be pre-booked. We carried on down the pass to Buttermere where we parked in a National Trust car park from here we did a 5 mile walk around Buttermere. On the way around Prince went in the water numerous times and even went for a swim of his own accord at the start! We saw a foreign couple with two dogs who both chased after a sheep, the owners went berserk, shouting and screaming until they got the dogs back, we put ours on a lead and quickly walked past looking slightly smug and pleased it wasn’t ours! We had our picnic at the waters edge and also saw our first red squirrel on our way round, he ran off up a tree but we could still see him at the top and pointed him out to some other walkers as they passed. A nutty pair of Scotsmen stopped us at one point as one of them wanted to take a photo of Prince with his mobile, we could hardly understand him which doesn’t bode well for our travels further north! Eventually we got back to Sykes Farm where we had to once again sample some of their ice cream to check it was still as good as the day before. It really was, and after they were consumed we needed a drink so we popped into the pub next door and had some Old Peculiar to put us right!

Phil was up at 6:30 the next morning, this time to do a 20 mile ride to the top of Skiddaw, which at over 3,000 is one of the biggest mountains in the Lakes. On the way I got chatting to a road biker who lived in Portinscale (just up the road) and every day before work he rides around Derwent Water, what a place to live! We said our goodbyes and I continued on my own up to the top of the mountain, mostly pushing but some riding, with the views ever expanding as I rose higher and higher. At the top the scenery was breathtaking, looking down on the whole of the Lake District and its huge mountains reminded me of being in the Alps (without the ski lifts). The downhill was awesome, 5 miles of constant downhill all off-road, in some places it was so steep I had to stop and squirt my brakes with water and they hissed as they cooled down! I met 3 sets of walkers on the way down who I said hello to, the first couple were very surprised to see a biker up there at that time in the morning! I got held up again by another shepherd moving his sheep up a track, he was on a quad bike and had only one dog, I had to stop as I got swamped by sheep as they came towards me. Once back at the van and showered we headed out to Keswick, we wanted to have a general look round, Phil wanted to see what the Pencil Museum was all about and Linda wanted to go to the Quaker Tapestry exhibition. First we went into Rathbone’s with Linda’s waterproof which has frayed on the seams, they said this was due to it being a light weight polyester and not nylon which is ten times stronger, they did say they could send it off to Sprayway for us but it would have to be clean (!) they said it would be ok to machine wash and shouldn’t develop runs in the fabric so that was that. Then Phil took the dogs back to the car and Linda set off to find the exhibition, couldn’t find any of the streets marked on the leaflet so popped into the police station to ask for directions, met a very friendly police man who said it was a police station not a Tourist information centre (joking) and then proceeded to look at the leaflet and not recognise any of the street names and ask if it was Keswick, I said yes I thought so and then he found the Kendal address on the leaflet, whoops! Very funny and embarrassing but at least it gave him a laugh! Linda then had a wander in the outdoorsy shops while waiting for Phil who learnt some amazing things about the manufacture of pencils, saw the worlds largest pencil and a pencil used in the war by POW’s that had a map hidden inside it. Then we popped into Booths as its our favourite supermarket (that’s not saying a lot) and while we were inside there was a very loud thunderstorm so we speeded up to get back to the dogs, Smudge very stressed and Prince a bit worried because she was! In the evening we had a walk from the site to the Borrowdale road and back onto our lane, Prince had a few swims in the river and we got rained on a bit, Linda found her right boot had a split in it (so that’s why its been leaking so much) and on our way back through the site we saw a roe deer.


We had already decided that today we were going on the Keswick Launch boat trip around Derwent Water, so we got up earlier than usual and Linda went out to reception and got us some tickets, after getting ready and packing a picnic we headed out down the paths from the site to meet the boat as it came to our nearest stop at High Brandlehow. We stayed on the boat past the next 2 stops and eventually reached the Keswick landing. We got off here as we intended to have another wander round Keswick, so from the launch we had a walk around the lakeside before finding a nice bench to sit on at the waters edge and have our picnic, watching the learners on their yacht’s (Mike J – you’d have loved it!). After this we headed into Keswick where we went into a few boot shops. In the first shop the assistant was very helpful, and told us about how her daughter and a group of friends got caught in the brief thunderstorm yesterday while out walking, a number of them were struck by lightning, and one was even thrown 30ft in the air! After leaving the shop we bought the News & Star which had the full story of the group’s drama on the front page. After failing to find any suitable boots we headed back to the launch via Hope Park, the town’s very nice waterside park, and jumped on the next boat which was heading our way. We jumped off the boat at the next stop we came to at Ashness Bridge, where we walked the half mile up the road to the bridge. It’s a lovely little narrow stone bridge which doesn’t look like it could take much weight (we saw a few cars going over it though and have driven over it on a previous visit). We took some photos and splashed about in the stream before heading back down to the jetty to catch the last boat home. It was a short trip back to High Brandlehow, and then a mile walk back to the van.


On the way to Bassenthwaite the next day we spotted that one of the large houses with a lovely garden had an open garden day in aid of Borrowdale School. We quickly pulled the car over and went in for a nosey! On the way up the drive there was an honesty box which asked for £1 each which we duly paid and hesitantly headed down one of the little paths, we were soon surrounded by lush shrubs and trees and spotted a small fountain in front of the house. We emerged onto a little lawned area next to the house, and were soon to be met by a very friendly little Scottie dog, who welcomed a lot of fuss! As we headed along the lawn we saw a lovely hedge which had been cut into the shape of the dog! Around the corner we were met by the lady who owned the house and we had a little chat about the garden and the Scottie hedge in particular (which she said her daughter thought was tacky!), she then warned us about her husband who was in the garden somewhere, as he has Alzheimer’s and senile dementia, and once he starts talking you can’t stop him (he’s fine, just agree with everything he says)! Of course, just up the path we met him and he started chatting! He was a lovely friendly chap who told us a bit about the house and garden and how they had bought it when it was run down and the garden was still a work in progress, he then went on to say he was in the Air Force and worked his way up the ranks, he told us about how he was present in a meeting when Stalin (the Russian communist leader) had died and he had to come back and tell Maggie Thatcher who he told us was Prime Minister at the time! He thought we were just visiting the garden as we said we had met his wife and were just having a wander, he was very pleasant company, but as the dogs were in the car we made our excuses and left him to his veg patch. After a quick hello to the gardener we were back in Tonks and on our way to Bassenthwaite. We parked up on a small forestry car park (just down from the pay and display- saving £2.50!) before walking up the hill towards the main car park. We saw that there was some sort of Osprey spotting event on, so we continued up the hill to see what all the fuss was about. When we got to the viewpoint the RSPB had set up a few telescopes which were trained on an Osprey nest in the trees about 1,000yds away, on looking through one we got a really clear view of the 2 parent birds sitting on the nest. Apparently one of the 3 eggs on the nest had hatched yesterday but we couldn’t see the chick. We carried on back down the hill and had our lunch on a secluded picnic table in the sun before heading back to Tonks where we were talked at by one of the very nice RSPB workers who said we should join! We escaped and headed back to the ‘van where we decided to prepare for tomorrows early departure by taking the awning down, having a tidy up, and then Phil headed out for his final ride in the lakes.
This 12 mile loop took me back up past Ashness Bridge (which we’d seen the day before) and to the top at Watendlath Tarn, then there was an excellent rocky descent into Rosthwaite before following the B road half way up the Honister Pass (phew!) before following an even more fun rocky downhill back to the van. Meanwhile Linda took the dogs for a nice peaceful walk to the side of Derwent Water where she found a lovely spot on top of a rock outcrop to have a sit and listen to the not very much at all that was going on.


The next day was move day, so up early and out before 9:00 to avoid the parked cars in the lane, the entrance and exit to the site has 2 very narrow bits (through a pair of old gateposts and over a very narrow double humpback bridge) so we wanted to make sure we beat the influx of walkers on this bank holiday morning. After dawdling our way along the A66 w e arrived on the Camping and Caravan Club site at Barnard Castle at 12:00 and despite the fact you’re not allowed in before 12 there was already a queue of vans and campers waiting to get in, once at reception we had a lovely welcome despite the wardens being a bit stressed, and one of them showed us to our pitch. We spent the afternoon getting set up and putting up the awning, and then had a brief visit into the town centre of Barnard Castle. On the way in we saw the first of what was to become a common sight, Romany Gypsies camped on the side of the road and in lay-by’s with their horses tethered nearby. This is because of the Appleby Horse Fair which is taking place from this coming Thursday for 7 days, and the Romanies arrive well in advance and pitch up in the surrounding areas. Once in the town we had a little walk around and then went in one of the many pubs for a pint. The one we chose had a lively atmosphere, with music and pool, so we sat at a small table and decided to stay for a couple of drinks!


We’ve been to High Force, which is a 70 foot waterfall where the river Tees tumbles down over its rocky bed as it rushes down Teesdale towards the sea. We did a 6 mile walk which first took us to the smaller waterfalls at Bowlees and up to Gibsons Cave, an impressive rocky overhang which the water cascades over and into a plunge pool below, the story says that it was the hideout of an outlaw called Gibson in the 16th century, and he used the cave behind the waterfall to hide himself and his stash, which is how it got it’s name. We had a play at the side of the plunge pool and on the very slippy rocks that make up the river bed before finding a convenient picnic bench to have our lunch on. We continued our walk past the small visitor centre in Bowlees in an old chapel which we had a look around and then on across the fields and over an old footbridge. The Wynch Bridge was originally built in 1830 and is an iron suspension bridge that is now Grade II listed, there is a sign above the bridge that said that foot passengers should go over one at a time so as not to overload it. Despite this Phil took a gamble and walked across with Prince! We carried on walking along the Pennine way which follows the Tees and took us to a great viewpoint looking down on the High Force Waterfall. Whilst not the biggest waterfall in England 70ft is still high enough, and with the sheer volume of water coming over the falls and the immense noise it created it was quite a sight. After snapping some photos we retraced our steps back to Tonks to head back to the van. On the way back we stopped at Grassholme Reservoir where there is a very small visitor centre and a free car park. Grassholme is one of many reservoirs in the area which are all linked by rivers or underground pipelines, as well as domestic use these reservoirs also supply industry, except the factories get untreated water straight from the reservoir rather than the treated stuff we get to drink and wash in.