Total miles: 21.7
Elevation gain: 2,100 ft
Time walking: 8:30am – 8:15pm
Miles to date: 816.8
Today’s section of the Pennine Way suffers somewhat from comparison with the rest of the route. Standing alone, it wouldn’t be a bad walk. Standing next to the countless other stunning days, it’s a bit of a forgettable one. It really wasn’t that bad, but it was long and tiring, not helped by the fact I’d added 4 miles by deciding to stop at Garrigill yesterday.
I’d managed to make an early start, munching on granola and packing up my bag while still in my tent – I feared the midges would still be rife. I emerged from tent to do the last crucial bit of packing to find the midges were indeed still rife, they buzzed around my face as I took the tent down as quickly as I could, not even taking too much time to shake the dew off as they were driving me to distraction! I honestly don’t know how people live in midge-infested areas! As fast as I could I retreated to the village hall to pack the final few bits and made a quick getaway, on the road by 8:30am.
My plan was to walk the 4 miles to Alston to find somewhere for breakfast and to pick up some food and some cash. The walk was nice enough, more or less following the river through fields. I bumped into a lovely couple coming the other way who were headed up over Cross Fell. They said they’d bumped into a woman a day or two ago who was walking LEJOG too – I wonder if it is the same woman I’ve heard about before, if so it sounds like I’m catching her up! They also warned me that it was very wet along today’s route, something the national trail description also mentions. Glad I put my waterproof socks on then!
Arriving into Alston I tried to remember where the best cafes were. I’d been here last year but had a feeling most of the life of the small town (England’s highest market town, incidentally!) was up the hill. I saw an open cafe closer to my route, opposite the Information Centre, and decided to try my luck in there. It wasn’t the nicest cafe, more of a greasy spoon really, but the owner was friendly and at my request for “the biggest breakfast you do” he produced a full English with (I think) extra bacon and toast. I demolished the lot, except the black pudding (still not a fan…although I managed half…). Thankfully I had £10 in cash still as he didn’t take cards and it turned out that the only cash point in town had broken and there was no cash machine on my route for another 3 days, uh oh! I was down to about £2.50 and wondered what I’d do about paying for a campsite tonight. I figured I’d figure something out! Heading back down towards the route I popped into the well stocked Spar at the petrol station to restock on food, realising I’d made the rookie error of eating a massive breakfast before going food shopping…consequently I didn’t really feel like buying any food! I did the best I could, stocking up on nuts, biscuits and cereal bars in particular. I really should have picked up some lunch-type items as there are no lunch stops for the next 3 days, but my full English-full belly couldn’t face the idea of buying bread and ham!
I finally left Alston at 11:30, later than I’d have liked but at least well fed and with food for the journey. The route crisscrossed through fields, crossing the main road several times in a rather random zigzagging fashion. I think the path tries to take in higher ground where possible and there were some sections just on the edge of the open moorland where there were lovely views up to heather-clad higher ground on either side, along with the main view up the valley. Part of me had been tempted to take a slightly easier option of following the South Tyne Trail which follows the former railway line in a straight, flat line, but I couldn’t bring myself to abandon the Pennine Way. It was probably the right idea regardless of whether one is a purist or not, as those cycle routes tend to be rather boring affairs to walk along. Furthermore, there were definitely some nice spots along the way. The first highlight was the Epiacum roman fort which the trail passes (with the option of a detour through the fort itself). The ridges of the fort were incredibly well defined and once at the other side, from below, it looked impressive silhouetted against the sky.
Other highlights included several beautiful tall arched bridges carrying the old railway line over little river-cut gorges, and the sight of the steam train that runs from Alston, puffing and tooting its way along the restored section of the line. I also saw a fair bit of wildlife today, a couple of Curlews (I think), lots of bunnies and some mice scuttling away out of my path. A less good moment was slipping badly on some sloping steps coming down towards Knarsdale Hall (a pretty spot). I went flying and would have landed hard on my backside had it not been for my pack landing first and cushioning my fall. Thankful that I only had a little jarring to my back and not a badly bruised coccyx (and, as I discovered later, that the only thing in my pack to explode was my pack of baby wipes), I picked myself up and made my way a little more steadily down the rest of the hill.
The next section of the path went up onto the edge of the moor again and there was a nice spell of sunshine so I had a lovely lunch break overlooking the valley. Following my shopping fail earlier I didn’t have proper lunch as such, instead eating a rather strange combination of a bag of mixed nuts, a packet of crisps, some flapjack, apricots and oat cakes. While I was stopped I looked up camping options in Greenhead only to find that it seemed the campsite marked on the map had closed down. There were a couple of hostels though and suddenly that idea seemed very tempting…not only could I pay by card but I could have a hot shower and escape the potential midges. Decision made! I gave them a call and they had plenty of beds so I booked in and told the pub (who run the hostel) that I’d see them for dinner! (Incidentally it turns out that the other hostel (which is closer to the path but further from ‘town’) offers camping too…but I’d already been tempted..!). Satisfied at my decision I headed off strongly, looking forward to my shower, only for my stomach to wake up and decide I hadn’t fed it enough. I couldn’t believe how suddenly it can hit, having just eaten! I quickly had to stop again and devour another cereal bar, some juice, some pic n mix and some Kendal mint cake. I’m not the biggest fan of Kendal mint cake but it does seem to do the trick!
The few miles along the edge of Lambley Common were pretty and occasionally squelchy but none of the really wet stuff I’d been expecting all day. I began to wonder whether everyone just had a different definition of ‘wet’ to me… I was starting to get almost disappointed that I hadn’t found this infamous wet stuff! As I came down from the common one of my feet did feel suspiciously damp though, despite my waterproof socks. On checking, it turned out there was a small hole in the toe. Nooo! Bye bye waterproof sock! I dug out my spare pair and replaced the offending sock, and headed on with my journey, this time over a series of fields and some slightly squelchier ground. A couple of short but stiff climbs reminded me that despite the lack of any one big climb, today was a long day, especially after yesterday’s tough day. Still, I only had a few miles left now, just the small matter of Blekinsopp Common and a shortcut into Greenhead.
Blekinsopp Common is pretty big! The path is very faint too, I lost it in one place so reverted to the good old compass and map reading. There is a pretty good fence though that the path heads towards then follows, so once I found this I soon came across the path again. It’s obvious when you see it – lots of mud and flattened reeds! There’s a section at the bottom of a couple of very shallow valleys where, after several metres of nearly ankle-deep sinking, I can confirm that Blekinsopp Common is indeed very wet! It still wasn’t quite the calf-deep wading I’d pictured based on some people’s accounts, but I was now beginning to agree it was pretty soggy! Then came the what-felt-long-but-wasn’t-really-all-that-bad climb up Black Hill, across the top (compass again!), squelching all the way but no sinking, and down the other side. The end was in sight! Well, it wasn’t actually, the village of Greenhead is tiny and hidden in a little valley, but on the map it was close.
The route still had a few more challenges just to test me though, at gone 7pm, when the tiredness and damp feet were starting to really make themselves felt. The first was a field of cows, and another massive bull right on the path. Thankfully he seemed more interested in the lady cow than me, but I gave him a wide berth just to be sure. Unfortunately for him, the lady cow did seem to be more interested in me than in him… just in case he was suddenly inspired by a fit of jealous rage I quickly hurried out of the field! The Pennine Way takes a roundabout route to get into Greenhead and given the time and the location of the pub I decided to follow the Wainwright “Pennine Journey” route into town which was much more direct, saving well over half a mile. The path started off clearly but headed over a couple of fields full of reeds and I managed to lose it, so it was back to the compass and pushing through a few thicker patches to find the stile at the other end. The steps at the other side were steep and didn’t look particularly well used, and feeling wary after my fall earlier I took them very carefully. The path comes out onto the busy A69 – biggest road I’ve seen by far for a while – and I have to wait a while to cross. I wonder what the passing cars thought of the travel weary, lone hiker emerging from the woods, muddy and windswept and two days without a shower! I probably looked like some sort of hermit or wild woman from the woods, hehe.
The path on the other side of the road was worse, through long slippery grass sideways down a hill and several times I slipped and nearly twisted my ankle. I really should learn my lesson about shortcuts…! But finally, I squelched down a boggy track to find tarmac and houses. I’d made it! My pub, the Greenhead Hotel, was just across the road and I gratefully walked out of the growing gloom of the evening into a lovely warm and welcoming bar, nearly 12 hours after I set out this morning. And gosh I was lucky – they were 10 minutes away from stopping serving food! That would have been devastating, to come so far and miss out on my long overdue pub dinner! As it was I was in luck and ordered a delicious rib eye steak with sweet potato fries (yuuum). That steak tasted so good! It didn’t last long!!
I’m so grateful to be in a bed tonight. My feet aren’t looking too worse for wear but they are aching, along with my legs. A couple of the midge bites on my leg have become irritated by my socks and blistered which is not nice. And how ironic, that I can walk 800 miles without blisters on my feet then I get blisters on my legs…?! Darn midges. Still, my hot shower was amazing, even with my funny dry soap sheets and not-terribly-absorbent microfibre towel, and I pretty much just collapsed into bed. Everything else can wait til morning…!
