Bentley Beetham meets Hannah Hauxwell

This is the title of next Friday’s 8 (ish) mile guided walk and also the title of it’s reccy wot me and superdawg did today.

Its a very nice walk as it happens, and fairly easy going on a  fairly warm and pleasant bright/cloudy sort of day. On the actual event, I’m hoping to be lead to a cup and ring marked rock by our steward, Neville, who knows where it is. I can’t find it. We’ll just follow him for a while.

Instead, today, in the car park, just after reversing the knipemobile into a drystone wall, I discovered a camera tripod sitting in the grass all covered with dew. There was nobody about, so I put it in the car boot and dropped it off at Barnard Castle cop shop on the way home. The policeman there declared it to be a cheap model and demonstrated how easily it fell to bits in his hands… ah well…

Today’s reccy went quickly and without any significant events, apart from the vast number of ground nesting birds knocking around – specialy those naughty lapwings which I almost got a video of.. and curlew and lots of skylarks and, on the reservoirs, a huuuuuuuuuge population of oyster catchers who all chirrupped off in a big black and white cloud on our approach.

And there were flowers flowering… lesser celandine, I think…

So, for the time being, there’s a little touch of spring. I understand that winter might be back next week.

The walk links Goldsborough Crag, the playground of one Bentley Beetham, a British mountaineer of some note and also a teacher at Barnard Castle school. His climbs on Goldsborough with the boys from Barny and long and easy climbs in the Lake District specially designed for sprogs – such as Cam Crag Buttress – now a long Grade 2 scramble on Glaramara.

And Hannah Hauxwell, who’s farm at Low Birk Hat is now a Durham Wildlife Trust reserve notable for it’s two Northern haymeadows, principally due to Hannah’s frugal lifestyle and the consequent lack of fertilizer on her fields, apart from the stuff produced from the reverse side of her milk cow.

Anyway, the walk’s next Friday starting at 10:00 from the South-east car park at Hury reservoir. It’ll be fab.

Lapwings!!!!