Elephant Trees Again

It was last December when I did this walk before. I make no apologies for posting about it again, cos its a favourite trip. Its easy walking, not far from home and , basically, I don;t have to make much of an effort. And the views are quite nice too.

Bridleway to the Elephant Trees

The last time I did it was in me new Christmas undies, and, I have to say, that I had the same long johns on today and, yes, they have been washed.

The route goes up the Hamsterley road out of Wolsingham, along a bridleway which runs close to the scarp edge, down in to White Kirkley and along the riverside back to Wolsingham. Simple, really and , its possible to add or subtract little bits for interest or in the case of boredom or if you can’t remember turning off your headlights this morning.

Munch Bunch by the Intake Wall

The Elephant Trees themselves haven’t changed since the last time I was here – but then they haven’t really changed much since I first saw them in 1986. They’ve probably lost a few branches I suppose.

Elephant Trees carvings

The only different thing was the new bunkhouse which has opened just above Wolsingham at Carrs farm. If anybody wants a bunkhouse whilst bagging North Pennines or something then the website is www.carrsfarm.co.uk I had a look, it looks OK to me, if a bit near our house….

I allowed superdawg to witness the demolition of a cheese and tomato sandwich in the shelter of the intake wall on the other side from the Trees. I’m not sure he was impressed. . I did let him hoover up the crumbs from my blueberry muffin before we pressed on, down to Frosterley and along the riverside.

It was noticeably colder today. It felt more like winter, and it was a dark sort of morning but it got sunnier and a bit colder later. There’s snow in the air (according to the MET anyway…..)

Just a note for anybody who’s never seen a kingfisher by the way – the place to go is the Kingfisher caravan site, just East of Frosterley. Funny coincidence that, eh? The name of the caravan and..er.. the .… bird thing. I didn’t see one today.

I watched the salmon jumping at the bridge to the site. There were some really big fish in there, most of whom tried several times to get up a small cascade, but the river is running very fast and they were washed downstream again and again. One very skinny-looking fish wriggled upstream. I wonder if a kingfisher could manage one of these beasts…

For the extra thrill, run with your eyes closed

We collected wood, mainly ash, to light the fire. Bruno helped by running about with various sticks then destroying them. He had a nice charge around in the townfields which always seem to be empty of stock at this time of year.

This is a very easy ten mile trundle, which takes about four hours if you ramble and three if you don’t stop.