Day: 030
Date: Thursday, 30 June 2022
Start: Alston
Finish: Dufton
Daily Kilometres: 33
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 847
Weather: Sunny in the morning and partly sunny in the afternoon. A few spots of rain.
Accommodation: Youth Hostel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Cereal, toast & jam.
Lunch: Egg mayonnaise baguette/Cheese & onion baguette
Dinner: Bangers, mash & peas/Burger & chips, brownie & icecream
Aches: Dave - a few niggles. Julie - nothing.
Highlight: Hard to pick today, but the first hour or two in bright sunlight walking through grassy meadows abundant with wildflowers was hard to beat.
Lowlight: Firstly, the last couple of kilometres into Dufton were through muddy farmyards (and it wasn’t just mud) and narrow muddy trails that we could have done without. Secondly, Dave’s laptop was hot when he took it out of his pack at the end of the day and refused to start. Eventually, Googling on his phone, he found how to “hard” reboot it and it worked. Catastrophe averted!
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Very poor phone reception tonight so this will be a brief account of a superb day’s hill walking.
After eating our fill of breakfast at the guesthouse in Alston, we started walking around 7:30am following a narrow pretty path upstream alongside the Tyne River. After half an hour, the Pennine Way moved away from the river to go through some beautiful grassy meadows covered in wildflowers and seemingly the perfect abode for rabbits, of which there were plenty.
In mid-morning, we passed through the very attractive little village of Garrigal before climbing away from the river on a long earthen country lane high into the treeless grassy fells. The further we went, the rougher the trail became until, after a final muddy and boggy steep climb, we reached the grassy summit of Cross Fell (893 metres) which will be the highest point on our journey to Land’s End. We had a stunningly clear day, a rarity up there, and could see vast distances in all directions, including to the Lake District.
From Cross Fell, the trail more or less followed a high grassy, and often boggy, ridge for kilometres with continuing spectacular views. There was little wind and occasional sun, making it perfect weather for hiking and we enjoyed the walking immensely.
Eventually it came time to descend, soon after a passing an incongruous radar station atop Great Dun Fell, and we reached the tiny village of Dufton, and our youth hostel accommodation, about 5:30pm. We checked in, ordered dinner, breakfast and packed lunches for tomorrow and spent an evening that was much more pleasant for Dave once he had got his laptop working again (see above).
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