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Saturday 30 April 2011

Stanhope Denes and the Bit In Between – Reccy

pig family

Next week, I’m leading another Durham County Council walk, and today was the day to do the pre-disaster checks…er… the risk assessment pre-walk walk thing…

The Pigs are some I met on the way, incidentally. They were either very friendly or a bit hungry. They looked delicious, anyway.

stanhope old hall

So me and superdawg nicked off to Stanhope with a jam butty, a banana and a slab of cake and did this walk yet again.

As you can see from the pics, it was a very nice and sunny day and everything was quite green. Stanhope Dene was a delight and absolutely heaving with wild flowers – mainly ramsons, primroses, violets (or were they pansies?) and celendines and there was a woodpecker pecking a dead tree.

plodging pool

We went to the salmon pool where Bruno had a little plodge and I discovered a large number of empty budweiser bottles and lager tins scatterred about. I collected them up and stuffed them into my pack. Honestly,…. dhuhhh…… ghasp…

What I’m most upset about, of course, is the fact that I missed the party. Anyway, it’s all been recycled now.

stanhope reccy 016

Then we followed the route up over the moor and along the old railway line to Park Head, where we, that is, me, enjoyed a cuppa and a teasted toecake. I allowed Bruno to watch as a treat. They were very busy with cyclists in silly clothes asking for their water bottles to be filled up, so I didn;t talk to the boss about next week’s walk today. I’ll send an email, which he’s more likely to remember anyway. It was a bit frantic up there today.

crawleyside incline

We progressed down the Crawleyside incline and along Crawleyside Edge to Jollybody farm, where we met the Pig family. We all had a lovely grunt. Bruno had never met a pig before, so he was intrigued as to how he was going to eat a whole one at one go…

crawleyside edge 1 weardale from crawleyside

We sidled discreetly through a lambing field and into Shittlehope dene (no sniggerring, ta…) and this was all very green and flowery and pleasant once again.

I did come across a fallen tree which is across the path but doesn’t pose a serious blockage and can be ducked-under. I’ll report it anyway, with a photo and the Rights of Way peeps can decide whether or not the rangers would like some chain saw fun.

shittlehope dene

And that was that. The mobile has intermittent signals all the way around the route except in the depths of the Denes, there’s one exposed bit and a road crossing and there we have the risks…

9 Miles and 1000 feet – which, spookily enough is exactly what it was the last time I did this walk back in January.

http://www.backpackersclub.co.uk/e107/news.php?item.42.3  Has details of the Dales Outdoor Weekend which coincides with this walk (Just so people can have a walk after looking at all those tents)

dvcrs walk 2

6 comments:

AlanR said...

All in all that looks a very pleasant walk. And i love that name, no not shittlehope, but Jollybody. Great.

Lovely spot for a party too.

Steven Horner said...

I walked through Stanhope Dene 2 weeks ago and enjoyed it, I had the same gorgeous weather.

I spent a while looking at the mines, the one with the metal door in the cliff face was inviting. It was hard to read the writing on the metal board next to it, think it said something about caving in.

After my wander I came up with more or less the same route as you to take the girlfriends son when I get back from Scotland.

One day we might actually get out for a walk, seeing as we only live a mile from each other. Would be good to see you again.

-maria- said...

A nice one! And what a fiesta there had been - good to know you recycled the remnants of it.

Mike Knipe said...

Yes, Alan - Jollybody, should have a Sunday evening TV series. Perfick...
Steven - we should have a walk, but you'll have to slow down a bit... Or we could do beer, perhaps.. or both...?
Maria - They're clearly just a load of slutscum in reality. There wasn't enough beer to get drunk on, so that can't be the excuse for chucking the empties about.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see a picture of my house namely Stanhope Old Hall !! Is Weardale the best unknown,undiscovered place in Northern England? Don`t tell everyone though, don`t want too many trekking past my garden wall!!!

Cameron McNeish said...

Hey Mike,
We really enjoyed the Backpackers Club walk although there weren't many BC members on it. Many thanks for all your information and guiding though. I've no doubt the walk will be described in a future TGO, with a good mention of yourself of course!

best wishes,

Cameron