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Wednesday 30 September 2009

Adopt-a-path walks in North Durham











Really attentive readers may recall that last May and last October, I did my bit for the footpaths and bridleways of the very very North of Durham – so far North, in fact, that the walk started in Blanchland, which is, of course, in Northumberland.
I’m a Voluntary Countryside Ranger for Durham County Council, y’see. I work alone. I’m the lone ranger. Today, to indicate my authority I wore a badge in my hat. It says Burnley FC and has a claret and blue shield.
And so, in the fair parish of Hunstanworth, I checked out the following footpaths and bridleways:

FP28
FP1
FP24
BW22
BW31
FP29
BW32

And in Edmundbyers:

BW5
BW9
FP8

The Edmundbyers paths are much longer than the Hunstanworth ones , of course.

And I found that on FP24 there are absolutely loads of blackberries and the locaal farmer has lost two rolls of hay over the wall, which he has partially demolished. Nowt to do with me.

On FP1, the path is collapsing a bit more than it was last May and I realosed that at the road start, you can’t tell which gate the path goes through, unless you know already.

On FP29, the stile takes you by surprise when one side shoots up in the air and this dumps you in the woodland on the other side.

BW32 doesn’t go anywhere that horses and bikes can go and the cows on PF8 have been replaced by little black ones that aren’t very aggressive. The gorse at the Edmundbyers end of FP8 will close the path soon (maybe next summer) unless it gets trimmed a bit.

And that BW5 aka the Lead Mine trail is a fab high-speed thrash of easy walking over purple moors. Cyclists seem to like it a lot.

And that was that. Autumn is upon us, the leaves are turning there was some odd bright skies and drizzle at the same time and an edge to the wind.

I’ll be putting in reports about the things that need reporting.

14 miles done in two circular walks – and nobody met.
And I can do this walk without a map now….

I’m off to Wales on Friday, so if anybody posts late comments, they probably won’t get authorised till I get back in a fortnight – unless there’s a library with interwebby stuff or something

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