Border Walk Day 1 Carlisle to Longtown

The first day of this epic of sore feet and comedy waymarking should carry some kind of subtitle about Adam and Eve and King Arthur. This may well become clear later.
Or possibly not.

I started with a pie. It was a steak and onion from a Carlisle pie shop and it was very hot and very nice. It was about the time that I’d burned my tongue for the third time (hunger/greed/impatience) and just before I arrived at the fountain in the underpass by the Sands Centre that it started raining. In fact it bounced down. This was to set a pattern. I put on full waterproofs. This was to set another pattern. I wandered off on the riverbank. The river was the River Eden. It leads to the Solway, which is where I was going.
The day was one of rain then fairly heavy but short showers. I got fairly wet.

The walk along by the River Eden is very easy. It has just the one short shock of an uphill but in general it flows through cow pastures (with cows) on a easy grassy path with no contours to disturb the rhythm. At one point it does go through a marsh, where the line of the path and the line of the river and the mapping thereof bear no relation at all to each other, but in general, it arrives at Rockcliffe, where one of the local cattle was busy eating the cricket pitch and where I was greeted enthusiastically by a border collie puppy, with little in the way of excitement or effort.

I pushed Eastwards on lanes, crossing the M6 and joining Cycle Route Number 7 for a short section of pleasant railway path – and thence to Arthuret Church.

Arthuret Church is supposed to stand on the site of a sixth century church which possibly involved some post-Roman British Vortigern/Arthur type of anti-English warlord and Christian to boot. It is now a very large medieval church with an incredibly crowded graveyard, and, just a little along the scarp, an ancient well dedicated to St Michael, the Patron saint of lady’s sandwiches and upper middle class underwear.

It wasn’t too far through cow and horse pastures, complete with you-know-whats to the Border township of Longtown.
This has a bloody history including two 16th century battlesites and general Border lawlessness and more, organised general warfare involving large armies. There was no evidence of this in the Graham Arms (Grahams being one of the local reiver clans) and I had the steak pie and some beer and repaired to my B&B for a lie down. This would be my only B&B of the trip.
It was 15 and a half miles and about 500 feet of uphill if you’re really really careful about counting all of the contours.

Brief Interlude for the Borders Walk

There will now be another interlude. Hopefully, this will be about eight days long. If its any shorter, it means I’ve given up and if its any longer then it means I’ve run away with a gipsy girl or otherwise fallen down a mineshaft or something.

I’ve packed me bag in hopes and not weighed it.

Tomorrow as the forecast is not good, I’ve booked in at the Hotel Adolf Hitler in Longtown (so called because it has extreme views) but after that it’ll be the camping – and a night in the hostel at Byrness.

Anyway, here’s a relevant bit of music that is..er…relevant. Its Kathryn Tickell playing Northumbrian Pipes. If this doesn’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand up then there’s no hope for you at all. I won’t be humming this tune whilst walking by the way – the walk would be over in half an hour if I did…

I’ll be back a week on Monday (hopefully..see above…)

Border Walk Kit and Food List

Suzie asked if there was a list of kit. There is, and here is the list of stuff to be taken on the Border walk. Most of the overnights on this walk will have nearby access to pubs and shops. There’s one night in the Forestview Hostel at Byrness and one night wild camping. So, I’m just carrying some lunch for the first day or so, most of the breakfasts and one full three course dehydrated evening meal, plus one spare dehydrated meal.

I’m taking just the one gas canister , in view of access to pubs.

There are shops at Longtown, Newcastleton, ?Kielder (not sure about this one), Town Yetholm, Coldstream, so I need to shop for day food at Newcastleton.

I haven;t packed yet, so I don’t know the weight of this, but its very similar to a TGO pack, but with less food. I’m guessing at about 12kg, which isn’t lightweight, but its not too bad. The only addition I’ve made is a headnet for the Kielder midgies. This weighs bugger-all.

Here’s the list:

	Item	notes
Clothing	Hat	north face
	Buff	tgo challenge buff
	Tops/Base layer X2	merino wool base layer
	Fleece	rab
	midge headnet	highlander micronet
	Waterproof jacket	rab
	Trousers	ronhill
	Waterproof trousers	cheapo blacks
	Undies X2 spare
	Socks x2  pairs
	Boots	marmot
	Gloves (thinsulate type)	50 pence on crook market
	Cheapo sandals for paddling	becks
Toiletries	toothbrush and paste
	alcohol-based handwash	small bottle
	pack towl	small
	hotel shower gel	smal bottle
	pkt tissues	for the bottom
Tent	Tent	hilleberg akto (max weight about 1.5 kg)
	Poles
	Pegs
	sleeping bag	golite adrenalin
	neo-air mattress
	small petzl headlight
Food	Platypus	3 litre
	Stove	primus
	2x250gm gas	1 canister per 6 days
	primus kettle
	cup (about 1 pint)	polythene
	spork
	windshield and stove stabilizer	primus
	pen knife small tin opener
	cigarette lighter
	washing up sponge/scourer
Entertainment	Money
	Cards
	camera
	small radio/ipod or similar
	consider your boozy needs
	e.g. cycling bottle full of some kind of alcoholicaal spirit….hic…
safety	compass
	gps
	whistle
	phone
	blister dressings
	medication
	pencil/small notepad
	1 pr spare laces
	gaffa tape on walking poles
	2 walking poles
	spare batterries
Rucksack	deuter air contact 45+10 litre
	bum bag
Food	Instant tea
	sugar
	oatcakes
	squirty cheese
	choccy bars	mars, boost, double decker
	energy bars
	instamt porridge
	breakfast bars
	sm phts instant coffee
	hot chocolate drinks
	water purifying tabs
	2 mountain house meals
	2 sweet courses
	ainsley harriot soup

What Forest Harvesters Do

We parked a car in a pal’s farmyard, mainly to gain a little bit of height, and wandered up through old pastures, seeking out hidden mineshafts. We found one, with a mat of grass covering five or six concrete sleepers with little in the way of cracks to allow depth to be gauged.

We entered a bit of forest. The landowner came up on his ATV and we chatted for a while. Various Alston Moor issues were chewed over. It rained heavily for a short time.
Upwards through the thick forest. This is a public footpath and you’d only know by feel. The actual routs has had the lower branches snipped off to provide a comfy way through – but its not obvious. This wood is doomed, though. Within the next few weeks the trees will have gone and all that’s left will be piles of brash. This will probably block the path.

We exited the wood on the far side and walked around the top end where the harvesters were working. Brian started a conversation with the chap working the lopping machine whilst I went off to investigate a line of spoil heaps – discovering each had a concrete-covered shaft. There were lots of other bits of diggings and old pits and so on. You can trace the vein reasonably well…..
Meanwhile – Brian had discovered that the harvesters were a family concern from the Borders, that the machine was about as complex to operate as flying a helicopter, that the wood here was heavier than in other places due to the short growing seasons which leads to narrow tree rings, that the price of timber is £40 a ton and that 26 tons had just been transported away, and that the wood had 40000 tons of wood in it. That’s a million and a half quid. And its not a very big wood – you can walk around it in twenty minutes…. 

The machine cuts a tree, strips off bark and small branches, cuts it to size and piles up the timber for extraction by another machine.
We gave them the phone number of the campsite at Westgate for their caravan and Brian offered various bits of local help, including a photo a day of the wood slowly disappearing for their website. You can see the wood clearly from his front room window.
The wood is occupied by a few deer and some small birds, all of which will find alternative accommodation close by.

For anybody about to bemoan the loss of a bit of woodland – this is commercial forest, planted about forty years ago for the purpose of providing timber. It has to be harvested like any other crop, otherwise there’s no point. Inside the wood is  not a specially nice place to be anyway – its dark and progress off the cut path is difficult and, in some places, impossible. It’ll get replanted in due course.
This little corner of Nenthead will be a bit colder this coming winter, though….

Great and Little Whernside

Yes folks, its another Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot top, and this time there’s a loyalty bonus - a 600 metre top just because I’m that sort of bloke.
Having successfully put the knipemobile through the MOT without too much fuss, I decided to strike while the iron was hot, as it were, or at least drive whilst the car is working – and went to Kettlewell for the bagging (yet again) of this  damn great lump of a Pennine.

We went up via Dowber Gill – probably the most interesting way, I think. Near the top of the gill, there’s an iron cover on a lump of concrete. Sliding this to one side reveals the shored-up entrance to Providence Pot. It looks scary. It is scary. its a very complicated vertical maze which ends up in Dow Cave, about a mile away. I looked down it and went “Oooer…..!”

A steep path takes the intrepid Whernsider up to Hag Dyke Farm. Hag Dyke farm is a scout hut. Today it was occupied by some of the better quality of yoof, crawling about in the juncus dressed in British Army battledress and covered in green Oil of Ulay face rub. The idea, apparently, was to creep up on Hag Dyke where some older military types were trying to spot them and occasionally sending out spoiler patrols. From the little crag above the house, it was apparent that one group of five were getting very close and the patrol had just walked past them without noticing them. Bless ‘em. What fun.

We progressed to the summit for a turkey and tomato butty, a mars bar and some dribbling (Bruno did the dribbling).

I have to say that it was a bit parky on the top of Great Whernside today. I had to put some layers on. Cloud was touching some nearby fells and the wind was a bit searching.
It was, in fact, a bit autumnish….   
Bugger
An easy walk and some bog trotting brought us along the ridge and up on to Little Whernside where the summit cairn appears not to be on the highest bit. But never mind.

We retreated back to the GW/LW col or bealach and followed the bridleway to Park Rash. The last time I was here, maybe eighteen months ago, this path was a mess, churned up by off-road motor bikes. But it seems to have recovered. Remarkably quick, that……  You could barely tell….
Anyway, at Park Rash there’s added interest from the First Century British (Brigantian) defences – deep ditches and ramparts and so on , and a field full of suckler cows including Beano the Bull. We took a slight detour. Discretion is the better part of being trampled to death by dog-hating moo cows. Bruno agreed. They can get a bit mad, these beasties.

A green lane brought us back to Kettlewell where TGO Challenger Heather Thomas-Smith leapt out from a gang of ice-cream eating girl guides and gave Bruno the bottom of her cone. TGO Challengers have a habit of popping up…..
We did 13 miles and 2200 feet of uphill.
It were grand. I’d do it again.