Heading North for a 'Little' 36 Night 'Holiday' Day 32 - 36
Sunday 18th July 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🔥🔥but with a bit of a cooling breeze!
Today our plan was to go back to Balderhead Reservoir to circumnavigate the lower Blackton and Hury Reservoirs, and that's exactly what we did.
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| Blackton and Hury |
Our walk was initially close to the water on the left side, and along the way at the Blackton/Hury dam we found a huge overflow station that was in full flow with water pouring from the former into the later at a great rate of knots! It was almost like a man made waterfall!
Then a little further on beside the Hury Reservoir we picnicked by the waterside before going to see the two below sunbathing and I'm not sure if they were watching us or it was us watching them!
Later we walked higher over deserted narrow roads and then back on gravel tracks to our car, and to be honest, I was quite glad to get away from the grassy waterside! Before we'd set off I'd given myself a good coat of insect repellent (I make John laugh by calling it flea powder), but unfortunately a couple of the little flying buggers were quite persistent and got us causing a good deal of irritation for the following night! But hey ho, we had a lovely 8 mile walk with magnificent views so we shouldn't really complain!
Monday 19th July 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Today was another really hot one, and maybe because of that, or maybe because we'd had a disturbed night due to our insect bites (mine were really red and swollen) neither of us felt like doing much! Therefore, we had a lazy day around the van, caught up with some chores (which took all of an hour) and also watched the inside of our eyelids for a short while😴😴😴! But it was very pleasant just to have time to do nothing more strenuous than holding our kindle's and maybe lifting the odd ☕☕ to our lips😂!
Tuesday 20th July 2021🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
The Bird's of Prey Centre at Thirsk was on our agenda today and to ensure we timed our arrival for one of the flying displays we needed to be there for around 1ish. The Centre holds the accolade of having the most breeds and birds in Yorkshire with over 70 birds and 30 species that include eagles, falcons, hawks, kites, vultures and owls and as I've always had a fascination with those kinds of birds I was quite excited about our day - but beware - there are a lot of pics to follow!
When we first arrived we had a short time to browse around some of the enclosures and these are just a few of the magnificent birds we found there.
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| A Grey Eagle Buzzard |
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A Mean Looking Golden Eagle
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| An African Fish Eagle |
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| A Steller's Sea Eagle |
We saw all of the above fly but I think I would have to say the Steller's was my favorite. He was magnificent both in flight and when perched and the info boards informed us that Steller's are the heaviest eagles in the world and can weigh up to 20 pounds. They come from coastal north-eastern Asia and eat mainly fish and small water birds.
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The Steller's Eagle in flight.
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Once the show started I think it would be fair to say that Wesley and Ethel stole a good part of it!
They are White Headed Vultures who are now in their 20s! It seems Ethel has been at the centre for many years, and for much of that time the handlers have been searching for a suitable mate for her, and recently, in 2020 they found Wesley who seems to be a perfect match. They now live and fly together and a few months ago they even started building a nest 😔 but apparently the weather turned cold so nothing came of that. Sadly Wesley isn't quite up to full strength because before he came to the centre he'd been kept in a pen and not allowed to fly for quite a few years, but now he flies (for just a short while) every day with Ethel so over time he should hopefully build some muscle mass and fully recover.
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To name but a couple there was Viper who is an American Kestrel
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And Rick who is a Lanner Falcon
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It had been quite a long drive to get to the centre but afterwards we both agreed it had been well worth it, and additionally, we'll hopefully be paying they another visit in the fairly near future because you can book 'Experience days' where you get to fly and learn about the birds under the supervision of an experienced handler.
Wednesday 21st July 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Today we stayed on the theme of birds and made use of our RSPB membership to visit RSPB Saltholme which is quite near to where the River Tees empties into the North Sea and also near the coastal town of Seaton Carew. When we got there I was quite surprised to find the reserve lies amongst a huge industrial sprawl but if you could ignore that there was lots to see that included birds, bees, butterflies, wild flowers, damsel and dragonflies, and even The Mad Hatter's Tea Party!
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| But they hadn't got any Earl Grey so John decided not to stay😂 |
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At one point we got quite excited because we thought we'd seen a Crane
But it was only a digger!
(See what I mean about the industrialisation) |
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But we did see an Arctic Tern
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| and a Ringed Plover |
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| along with this sculpture |
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| And then one of these little blighters kept still for long enough for us to get a pic of the real thing! |
Apparently, even though dragonflies and damsels seem fragile, in reality they're fearsome predators! They start as an egg on an underwater plant but then soon hatch into a pincer snapping nymph. It seems they live in the water for a few years eating anything they come into contact with before climbing out to emerge as adults. But then the adults only live for a few weeks and during that time they have to find their mate and start the cycle all over again!
After we'd done at Saltholme we nipped on to see the sea at Seaton but the industrialisation continued and I don't think I've ever been anywhere were I can see a nuclear power station (on the right) and a wind farm (left) all in one view finder! But we had a nice walk and the cooling breeze was lovely after our dust bath at Saltholme!
Thursday 22nd July 2021 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Another glorious day dawned but this would be our last full one in County Durham😔 so to make the most of it we decided to visit The Cow Green Reservoir which lies in Moor House Upper Teesdale Nature Reserve which is situated in the heart of the North Pennines. The park is the largest Nature Reserve in England and apparently, it's Britain's leading site for research into the effects of changing climate on the natural environment. It covers 8,800 hectares of upland country through which part of the Pennine Way runs, along with lots of public rights of way and Open Access Land. However, there are also lots of blanket bogs and old mine shafts so we were quite happy to stick to one of the Waymarked routes.
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The Cow Green Resevoir
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The info boards also told us about the golf ball like structure that we could see in the very far distance! It's the dome on top of Great Dun Fell and it's an important part of Britain's air traffic control system!
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Taken with full zoom from several miles away!
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As we looked towards the dome we could also see the highest point along the Pennine Chain, a hill called Cross Fell which stands at 2930 feet, and also Great Dun Fell which is the second highest at 2766 feet. And it is also here that the River Tees rises before flowing 85 miles eastwards to empty into the North Sea, but before it gets there it has 3 spectacular waterfalls along it's way! We'd already visited 2 of them - High Force and Low Force and today we were going for the 'hat trick' by going to see The Cauldron Snout Waterfall that tips over the Great Whin Sill, and we thought it was the most magnificent of them all!
To get to the fall we followed the Widdybank Fell Nature Trail which led us down to the Cow Green Dam and from there we could see the outflow that allows the River Tees to continue on it's way!
Then by scrambling down a rough rocky path we found ourselves beside the gushing waters of the very powerful Cauldron Snout which falls over three levels for about 600 yards which makes it the longest waterfall in England!
Friday 23rd July 2021 -
'Home' safe and sound after a very quick run down the motorway with absolutely no holdups despite it being the first day of the school hols for many!
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