Adopt-a-path stuff in North Durham

May (Yes, yes, I know its still April) is the other time that I do my twice-a-year walk around the moors, pastures and moors of the very North bit of County Durham – so far North, in fact that the walk starts in Northumberland. Its only 20 miles from chez Knipe, so its no big deal.
Superdawg is banned from this trip, partly because of the fact that its lambing time and the foelds are full of new lambs and/or very fat sheep – and there’s the little matter of three big fields full of suckler cattle. These girls seriously mugged me once when I had Bruno with me. I’m not letting that happen again. So I diverted the dog with his ball thingy that you put doggy bics in and he chases around trying to get them out again – and sneaked out of the house. There may have been some howling.
Anyway, two walks. Number one started at Blanchland and went through some woods, down a track (where I fell over and put a hole in my leg – lucky I had a spare…) up to a hamlet, up onto the moors, a bit more woodland and back to Blanchland. About 5 miles.

I should explain that the reason for this patrol is to monitor the footpaths and bridleways for the County Council. I report any problems on line. There was just one report to be made where a steep path is shored up by timber, and its starting to collapse.

I also clipped a few bits of overgrowth and ate a banana. I also came across a little blind rabbit. I believe this is a symptom of myxamatosis – a disease deliberately spread in the 1950’s to reduce a rampant wabbit population. This particular wabbit appeared to have just a few days left. It knew I was there, but couldn’t see me, and couldn’t run away. Not a good position to be in…
After a short lunch, I went off to the next village, Edmundbyers and had a good old thrash up a long bridleway onto the moors and back again on a footpath through those pesky cows. Fab weather – sunny and breezy and warm – and a really good old bash through the heather. No footpath problems to report. And I get expenses for this…..
I’ll be back in October.
The bluebells are just coming out and this year there seems to be a lot more lapwings – and curlew, oyster catchers and a large bunch of golden plover. So the moors were fair buzzing today.
A total of 14 miles and 1800 feet of uphilliness. Some readers may recognise the footbridge in the pic. A few may recognise the rabbit.

Incidentally “Blanchland” was so named because it had an abbey which was run by white monks – that is monks in white robes. Unfortunately between the Scots and Henry VIII, the place was ruined – the only bits surviving in tact being the Church and the pub - and, maybe the gatehouse. The rest was rebuilt by Lord Crewe, a Bishop of Durham, using stone from the abbey, and forming a square. All of the land to the South belongs to the Blanchland estate – originally Lord Crewe’s land, in fact.Edmundbyers, on the other hand is named after it’s one time owner, King Edmund. So there you are….

They nicked my text

I was browsing my blog stats (very quiet weekend as it happens) when I came across a link to this tp://waterproofboots.start4all.com/2009/04/23/northern-pies-cheviots-border-ridge-and-colledge-valley-in-modish-boots/

Well, the cheeky buggers (lets not be coy about this) have nicked the text from my post , added a few out-of-context bits of text of their own and published the resulting garbage on the internet.

I used the "contact" facilities at start4all's blogging website and it doesnt do anything.

The cheeky cheeky buggers. Nil points for these arseholes.

Lets hope they auto-copy this bit of text without checking it because the people who run start4all blogging software are a set of ignorant front bottoms and you'd have to be mad to use their services. That should do it.

Pic of me up Scafell pike (cheers me up anyway)

Read the Beano!

Here in Crook, we’ve been having some problem with these little green pests ransacking the place and eating the maidens, setting fire to waste bins and stuff. So we’ve called in the local County militia to sort them out. Pic above is George from the Bishop of Durham’s men despatching one of the feral dragons
.
We try to keep these blokes well away from the Border with our Northern neighbours as we are running our of space for all the cattle they keep bringing back…

Prolly go for a walk tommorrow….. in the meantime the house is noisy with kids and dogs and people telling the kids and dogs to behave, stop whatever it is they’re doing or do something they don’t want to do. Just now, they’ve gone off to some kind of open farm to frighten some cows or something…

However – it did give me an excuse to purchase “The Beano” along with the Sunday paper. In “The Beano” today, Dennis the Menace is scaring his dad by getting him on that famous TV show “Almost haunted” and his pet pig “Rasher” (did you know he had a pet pig by the way?) has destroyed dad’s water bed (dad was wearing a lifebelt at bedtime)

And (!) in Beano Max (for older kids (ahem)) – there’s a free Prank Pack including a rubber pencil (hoax your folks) – a nail bandage (painful!) a pack of snappy gum (?) and a Fart Whistle. Hooray for the fart whistle. I will be gear testing the Fart Whistle in the Forest of Bowland tomorrow. I might do a video. I’m not sure.
I might cancel TGO and start getting Beano Max. The free gifts are so much better

Cheviots - Border Ridge and Colledge Valley in new boots

I’d intended to do this walk on several occasions over the last few months and been prevented from getting anywhere near it by things such as not being able to find my garage keys, bits of urgent landlording stuff, and a blizzard. Yesterday dawned fine and clear and, especially, blue, so I had the traditional wait for the traffic on the Western bypass to clear and then hurtled off up the A1 (and other roads beginning with “A”) to Hethpool at the foot of the Colledge Valley right smack bang on the English/Scottish Border. This might seem a long way to go for a day walk, but really, it’s the same distance from Chez Knipe as Buttermere, Wharfedale or even Jedburgh and, if you time the journey, is a very quick trip.

There’s a car park at the foot of the Colledge Valley beyond which you’re not supposed to drive. I have to say that Colledge Valley is a specially beautiful corner and does well without the traffic…

The objectives for today were to bag certain hills, walk along the Border ridge, visit Hen Hole and then walk back down the length of the valley. In me new boots.

The first target was Great Hetha – a steep, rounded, grassy lump with a hillfort on the top (most of the local hills have hillforts). It went well. On the top, I changed into shorts, adjusted the laces, admired the boots for a bit, admired the view for another bit and then went off to find the Border Ridge which wasn’t too difficult as there’s signposts pointing to it all over the place.

I wandered along the Border as far as the junction with the Pennine Way, bagged Black Hag (which is green and doesn’t have a hag) – crossed the Border to bag The Curr and then continued southwards to The Schil – and then on to the 20 mile hut on the PW. On the way I met a chap with a golden retriever, whom Bruno decided to play with and dominate at the same time – which the other dog abjected to… and there were almost canine fisticuffs if human intervention hadn’t..er..intervened…

The chap with the dog was just finishing the PW and his son, was some way behind having also bagged The Cheviot (the brave fool!). I met the lad a bit further on and told him that he was just about to cross his final PW bog. He asked after his dad. He looked a bit fragged, but his pace up The Schil was fast. Only a young lad…. In the words of Linda Lovelace, “It fair brings a lump to your throat”

Anyway – on to the Twenty Mile Hut where we paused to read the guestbook which was full of stuff such as “Just spent the night here drinking brandy and whisky to take our minds off the fact that we’re cold and covered in spiders.” Poetry. It fair brings a lump……

On to Hen Hole – a deep gorge just next to the PW and, probably the most interesting way to climb the Cheviot. Or is that via Bizzle Burn. Anyway, I breached the waterproofness of the boots at this point by going up to me knees in the beck.

Finally, we hammered down Colledge valley, pausing only for a moment or so at the RAF war memorial at Cuddystone. This is inside a sheepfold-like structure and lists the allied air accidents in the Cheviots during WW2 – quite a lot of crashes. This is a really good place for anybody who needs a spot of quiet reflection.

The homeward journey back down the A1 was just 90 minutes. No traffic, y’see.

But what of the boots? I think they’re rather fab. I got some Berghaus Explorer trail Light boots – and they’re very comfy, grippy and, at the moment, very waterproof (outside anyway!)

I also got a compass from Mountain Warehouse as my Silva has developed an enormous bubble and thinks that magnetic North is sometimes in New York – and under “BOGOF” rules, I also got a new survival bag for nothing… and a pizza and a short sojourn in St Cuthbert’s shrine in the Cathedral (aka Cuddy.. as in Cuddystone as it happens)

And me TGO RAB fleece just arrived…..
The walk was 15 miles and 3000 feet of climbing – so we appear to be cooking on gas just now, which may well be a positive indicator for the TGO…

New Boots Time

I appreciate that a couple of weeks before the TGO Challenge is possibly not the best time to be buying new boots for use on the walk. But needs must.

I have several pairs of boots and here's why I can't use them....

1) Scarpa's - bought four years ago. Fab on Scafell Pike for bashing scree and boulders, and fab with crampons. But too heavy. After a couple of days, they'd have me poor feet in shreds.

2)Altbergs - Got these buckshee a couple of years ago. They're really comfy and not really all that heavy. But thye've died. The stuffing has fallen out, along with many of the lacing points.

3) Berghaus booooits - Lightweight -carpet slipper comfort - a birthday prezzie from my son roughly at the same time as I got the scarpa's. Not waterproof, and they've lost some lace fixing points.

4) Cheapo Hi-tecks. Comfy. Allegedly waterproof (ha!)

So thats it. I haven't mentioned the wellies.

Whatever I buy will likely be unsuitable in some subtle sort of way (story of my life!). And I'm hoping to start breaking them in tommorrow in the Cheviots. I'll give 'em a bit of a thrashing.

Me compass has a bubble too, so thats another reason for a trip to Durham.

And, like whitespider Darren, I'll be having a little visit to the Cathedral, just because.... but there'll be no pictures of lovely knockers here (I had some once, though, I believe)

Pics are a shrine involving walking boots in Slit Wood at Westgate. Some of my boots are in marginally better condiiton.