Heading North for a 'Little' 36 Night 'Holiday' Day 27 - 31

Heading North for a 'Little' 36 Night 'Holiday' Day 27 - 31

Tuesday 13th July 2021 ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞

Today was a bit of a Deja day in that we revisited somewhere that we'd previously been 11 years ago and that was the town of Stanhope with it's mahousive hill up onto the moor!  On that occasion we were undertaking the last stage of our C2C Tour which, over 5 days, had taken us from Whitehaven to Tynemouth, and on that 5th day the weather was absolutely appalling!  Today, in the car, we sailed up the very aptly named Crawley Hill but on that bleak storm begotten day 11 years ago it wasn't quite so easy.  On that day our party split up - Sharon and Paul followed a track over the Moor and John and I chose to travel on tarmac but even with that even surface under our wheels we ended up getting off and pushing from about half way up😬😰.  Statistics for it state that the hill goes on for 2 and half miles and has an average gradient of 6% but the steepest parts are 20%!  However, eventually we did get to the top but by then the wind was so strong that we had to shelter behind a dry stone wall while we got our breath back and recouped our energy with a little snack!

Sharon, me, Paul and John just setting of from Whitehaven

Going back to today our plan was to walk over some of the Moor that Sharon and Paul had ridden across just to see if we'd missed anything by not going with them!  We set off from the Parkhead Cafe (that used to be a railway junction) and once we'd crossed the road we were straight out onto the open Moor.  

The Parkhead Cafe where 11 years ago we'd all sat dripping while sipping hot choc and 
gobbling cake!

Our views as we traversed over the old Rookhope Railway Path were vast but at times we had to be quite careful because there were plenty of wet boggy patches to avoid!

After about 4 miles we came to what's left of the Bolt's Law Standing Engine House, which in times gone by, provided power to haul railway trucks up and down the Bolt's Law Railway incline on the end of a cable. These would have been filled with iron ore and limestone that was being taken from the Rookhope Terminus to the Tow Law iron-works, and apparently, after being built in 1846 it became the highest ever standard gauge railway in the UK and it wasn't decommissioned until 1923 .

It was here that we chose to stop for our picnic and we were quite grateful to Alan Turnbull's relatives for providing a memorial bench where we could rest while eating because there was far to much sheep 💩💩💩 to sit on the grass 😂😂😂
 

After that we didn't go any further because we still had 4 miles to walk back to the car but on our return journey we were quite entertained by the many many grouse that jumped out of the heather almost right under our feet.  I'm not sure who was the most startled at times, and because there were so many it was quite easy to get a good pic!

I hope he's got his running legs on for when the 🥆 shoot 🥆 starts in August!

We also spotted this huge Dragon Fly as we meandered back

Wednesday 14th July 2021  ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞

Well today turned out to be quite a hard day that was a bit reminiscent of our C2C trip!  We 🚴🏽‍♂️ 🚴‍♀️ to Hamsterley Forest ,and in places the 30 mile round trip presented quite a challenge!  We left our campsite at Barnard Castle and followed Sustran's cycle route W2W which stands for Walney to Wear and Whitby and it runs from Walney in Cumbria to Sunderland or Whitby running for 152 - 248 miles depending on which route you choose.  Obviously we only followed it for a short part of it's length but in doing so it took us over very quite country roads and Moor land but it's contours were daunting in places and Shank's Pony was required for short distances! 

However, once we arrived in the 2000 hectares forest it was quite beautiful with lots of very old trees, excellent tracks and grassy picnic areas where we could enjoy the sunshine.  

Where's Wally???

And Wally even met the Gruffalo 

Our way home was no less challenging and when we got there we both needed tea and cake to help us recover  ☕🍰, but maybe that means we just need to do it more often to aid our 'getting a bit fitter' plan🤣🤣🤣.

Thursday 15th July 2021 ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞

So after 2 fairly tough days today we'd booked to go to a place called The Forbidden Corner which is described as a unique labyrinth of tunnels, chambers and follies that resides in a 4 acre garden.  Apparently, initially it was built as a private folly for the exclusive enjoyment of a Mr Armstrong's family but it subsequently opened to the public by popular (and possibly profitable) demand!  

Our slot was booked for 1.30pm but as it was at least an hours drive away we set of soon after 12, so as John knew we'd got plenty of time he decided to take us there via the scenic route!  And this turned out to be a Roller Coaster of a ride over narrow 'roads' that passed through lots of Moorland were a lot  rabbits had managed to get squashed because they hadn't quite ran fast enough😞.  There were also plenty of dozy sheep to dodge and as we approached one jumped over a wall where there looked to be a precipitous drop 🤞 it was okay!  We also passed by 'Tan Hill' which has the highest pub in England at it's summit (1732 feet) and which has been used often in the Tour of Britain cycle race.  

But even having done all that we still arrived at The Forbidden Corner well before our allotted slot so we took advantage of their lovely picnic area to partake of our lunch. 

The very tame ducks really wanted to share our lunch but we were to mean to give them any😂

Then it was into the Garden itself and this rather tall young chap pointed out the way forward!

So we took his advise and headed in the direction he was pointing and I think what would have to be the most hilarious 'folly' awaited us a short distance further on and I really do wish I could add sound to our story!

This huge mouth belongs to a dinosaur and as John tried to push past his dangling uvula he let our an extremely loud, long multi toned belch which definitely competed with the ones my dearly beloved used to do when he was a bit younger!   We almost rolled on the floor laughing, and of course, he had to go back and have several more goes😂😂😂😂, and even after that the dinosaur hadn't quite done with us because to proceed into the garden we needed to be expelled our of his rear end 💩!

From there we proceeded though an absolute maze of twisty turney paths that led to nowhere, through castles and crypts and passed statues that attempted to pee on you if you were a bit unlucky! And along the way there were lots of cryptic messages that may have helped!

Anyone for Cricket

What a Big Chopper You've got!

We'd initially thought The Forbidden Garden would mainly be for kids (and there were plenty of them there) but John and I enjoyed it so maybe we've still got a bit of growing up to do even at our age😂😂😂!

Friday 16th July 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞(mostly boiling)

Today we headed off to Baldersdale to visit Baldershead Reservoir where we'd planned to walk along the Pennine Way to God's Bridge, and initially everything was fine because we were walking on a well defined track.   However, after a couple of miles a finger board pointed us upwards through rough tall grass where the track became almost indistinguishable and it was only John's map app that kept us going in the right direction.  But, that wasn't the problem!  What was was problematic was the huge number of biting flies that kept nipping us and drawing blood, and it almost seemed that with every step we took we earned another bite!  Now, sadly anybody that knows me knows I don't do flies - especially ones that bite!  So after several squeals of distress, lots of flapping of arms, a bit of swearing and lots of sulking John suggested we reroute, which required a retracing of our footsteps to follow another path - but to be honest that was almost as bad.  In the end the bite score was Me 10 John 4 but mine were definetely worse than his 😟!

Therefore, plan C was required, and although we never got to see God's Bridge we did end up with a stunning walk were we were able to overlook the chain of reservoirs in the valley.  The top one being Baldershead, then Blackton and finally Hury 

Baldershead

Blackton and Hury

Saturday 17th July 2021  🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🔥🔥🔥 (even hotter than yesterday)

Today we decided to visit Bowlees Visitor Centre so that we could walk along some of the length of the River Tees which rises on the slopes of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows for 85 miles to where it empties into the North Sea.  And our aim was to see some of the magnificent water falls that are clustered together but not all of what we saw belonged to the Tees!

Once parked up on what was a busy carpark but not yet packed we headed along Bow Lee Beck to Summerhill Force and Gibson's Cave but it was a bit difficult to take good pics because some rather large people were cooling of in the pool below the fall!

But I did manage to miss them out 😀

From there we retraced our steps  and proceeded towards the Pennine Way to see Low Force 

And then we needed to cross a Grade 11 listed bridge that swayed as we crossed.

A Wynch Bridge that is listed as a Grade 11 structure and where only one person is supposed to 
cross at a time.  

The Pennine Way then took us (after about 4 miles) to the opposite side of High Force which we'd visited a few days ago, and to be honest, if we'd known we could have such fantastic views from this side of the river we would have just come here instead!

Then because it was quite busy around the top of the fall we toddled a bit further and sat beside the chattering river for our picnic!

Throughout our walk we'd had loads of lovely wild flowers to admire

And right at the end we found another waterfall called Blea Beck Force which fed into the River Tees

But that wasn't quite the end because we'd still got to about turn and traverse our way back to the car, however as we went we felt quite glad we were leaving because all the rocky ledges, little 'beaches' and deeper pools were now full of scantily clad individuals trying to cool of and it was much to busy for our liking. 

Therefore, we quickly hiked back to our car and headed home - but when we got there it took us quite a while to cool down because the inside of our van was registering 46 degrees!  

Anyway that's it for this episode. 

Bye for now 😘

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