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Sunday 18 December 2011

A Weekend for Short Guided Walks Stuff

fulling mill and cathedral

This weekend I are mostly been doing Guided Walks stuff. We had the Saturday Afternoon Special on Saturday Afternoon during which we walked for about two miles in an upstream direction on the inner loop of the Durham riversides path and back again, a very similar distance on the downstream direction on the outer loop. We had very cold and sunny weather and there were six of us, including the two stewards. Two people turned up but went away again when told there wasn’t going to be a coffee stop. The guitar playing busker on Framwellgate Bridge was excellent. This is such a nice walk if you enjoy looking at spectacular views of cathedrals.

rangering 028

Sunday, me and Superdawg forayed out from one of the Eastern sally ports at Knipe Towers to reccy an eight mile walk which will happen on Tuesday and which will circumnavigate Crook. I have, in fact, dropped a Spherical Thing in the arrangements for this walk but I’m not going to tell anybody till they notice – unless they notice. Coffee and cakes will be available at the end, though, so whatever it is, it isn’t that.

icy view of crook

We had a nice walk today, though, in bright sunshine and with a thin layer of frozen snow, some of which Bruno ate. Views of the very snowy and not very distant North Pennines were enjoyed.

bunged up kissing gate

I also solved the mystery of where the path goes on Crook Golf Course and found a bunged-up kissing stile, which I unbunged by removing the vegetation and booting out loose soil with a hefty boot. The kissing gate now swings open and closed just like what it should do.

There are no other problems or issues with the route, although I may divert a little bit at one point for a marginally better course. Or I may not. Who knows?

I expect it to be muddy on Tuesday as the weather forecast is for mild weather which will melt the ice and release the mud.

advent walk

3 comments:

Jules said...

Some nice pics in there, Mike (not that your others are not nice!).

Hope it all goes well on the day.

Steven Horner said...

I can see my house if I squint in one of those pics.

The last time I walked through that stile a couple of years ago, it was bunged up too but there was a big hole in the wall next to it (don't mean the stables of the same name)which I walked though as the gate wouldn't budge after the field had just been ploughed.

Mike Knipe said...

... You can se our house from up there... You used to be able to see knipe towers, but they've just put some flats in the way.
The stile is on a healthwalks route so they like to keep those open. One is a bit wobbly and has mad miniature ponies running about apparently barking...?