More Knee Exercises on Alston Moor

I had a short visit to see Brian today to exercise the kneecap just a bit more – a little at a time, y’see.

We went to Blagill, and wandered towards by a very pleasant riverside path.  This walk is very popular with locals, apparently, and much picknicking is done in the summer. There’s also one or two waterfalls with some swimmable plunge pools at foot.

We stopped at Gossipgate Bridge for a Barrat’s Sherbert Fountain with a liquorice dip. I was immediately transported fifty years to the very edge of the civilised part of the West Riding , which was probably the last time I scoffed a tube of sherbert dip by a beck, or anywhere for that matter. I feel the need to reassure those feeling any nostaligia for 1950’s sweeties, that these do not appear to have changed much, except that the liquorice dip used to be a liquorice tube which enabled the sherbert to be inhaled. I expect that this may have killed several of my more delicate pals, but you must remember that the 1950’s was long before asthma and allergies and if people coughed a lot they probably had TB or they’d just nicked one of their Dad’s Capstan Full Strength, or, indeed a Senior Service if your Dad had been in the Navy.
But I digress.

Brian knew where there was another, more bigger waterfall and with an entrance to the Nenthead Level – an underground system which linked Nenthead with the railhead at Alston, some seven miles long.
We had a look, but were defeated by thick woodland and an ever-so-slightly perilous path. I had a poke around the river bed, which is carb limestone at this point (it being sandstone a few yards upstream)

Defeated, but not cowed, we returned by the Gossipgate bridleway which rises to Blagill hamlet in about a hundred metres of up and a couple of kilometres across.
We finished by experimenting with Brian’s boomerang. This is a real boomerang and not some kind of euphemism. It wouldn’t come back (we know a song about that…) and Bruno was demonstrating his excitement at the prospect of catching it and ripping it to bits, so we went back to Nenthead for coffee instead.

A short walk with a lot of “stuff” in it.  Only three miles and 350 feet of uphill.
Here’s a picture of the cat who lives next door to Brian, just because she’s a nice cat.

This walk could be extended into Alston at not much extra effort if the walker needs to go shopping, have tea and crumpets or get absolutely rat-arsed in the wide choice of public houses before stumbling back up the lonnin…