Just back from 2 days walking on the Pennine Way from County Durham down into the Yorkshire Dales. The weather was the best yet - hot and sunny - although for walking it was at times too hot and a great deal of water had to be carried and drunk.
Livi and I were dropped off at High Force Waterfall while the rest of the family drove on down to Hawes to pitch the tent.
The first part of today's walk was along the River Tees starting just below High Force Waterfall and then following the river downstream past Low Force Falls.
This was a really pretty walk with lots of families out for a stroll and a picnic, which slowed us down a bit as we tried to pass people. It was midday by now and the weather was getting hotter and hotter.
Luckily a lot of the riverside path passes through dappled shade in woodlands like this bluebell wood so we had some respite from the sun.
Although the Pennine Way doesn't actually go into Middleton in Teesdale we ventured into the village centre to sit and eat our lunch knowing that we could then visit the shop to buy icecreams and top up with more water.
After Middleton we were soon up onto the higher moorland which brought welcome relief from the high temperatures in the form of a strong breeze, only one problem - we were walking straight into the wind, another thing to slow us down! In the picture above you can see the track we are following which passes up and just to the left hand side of Harter Fell.
As we rounded the top of the fell we got our first view of the Yorkshire Dales ahead of us - quite a long way ahead of us.
After crossing moor and a high road which leads to Brough we walked through a nature reserve area known as Hannah's Meadow and then past Baldersdale reservoir. This point is the halfway mark of the Pennine Way.
We stopped for a well earned break and decided that as it was now 5pm we would walk to Bowes using the Bowes loop where Tim could pick us up in the car. This really was the only place that we could stop as apart from the A66 roads were very sparse in this area.
This is the point just after Baldersdale Reservoir that the Pennine Way divides and we followed the spur to Bowes...
which goes up and over Cotherstone moor. This last bit felt like the middle of nowhere (which it is). The strangest thing was that we knew from the map that we were getting closer and closer to the A66 and Bowes and yet we didn't see them until we were there. They are both tucked away just over an edge and you just suddenly come down and there they are.
As we walked into the top end of Bowes we saw our first horse drawn gypsy caravan, the first of many over the next few days due to the Appleby Horse Fair which took place later that week.
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