John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 031 - Dufton to Middleton in Teesdale

Day: 031

Date: Friday, 01 July 2022

Start:  Dufton

Finish:  Middleton in Teesdale

Daily Kilometres:  34

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  881

Weather:  Cool to mild, mostly overcast with some rain periods.

Accommodation:  B&B

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, English cooked breakfast, toast & jam.

  Lunch:  Egg mayonnaise sandwiches

  Dinner:  Pizza, custard tarts

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles.  Julie - nothing to report

Highlight:  The thundering waterfalls of the day - Cauldron Snout, High Force, Low Force - were all very impressive.

Lowlight:  Take your pick.

After a long solid climb in clear weather, very disappointed that heavy rain and cloud rolled in just as we reached High Cup, a spectacular lookout that we were eagerly anticipating.  Nothing to be seen but fog.

Julie slipped on the muddy and slippery trail and fell, ending up sitting in a puddle ….. but she was already pretty wet.

Julie dropped her phone while we were having lunch and the protective cover screen got broken.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

The hostel breakfast was good and filling, but later than we would have liked, and it was nearly 8:30am before we started walking.  Although it had been raining when we woke, it had cleared and we soon doffed our raincoats as the solid climb back onto the fells warmed us up.  Although the forecast had been for rain most of the day, we began to be hopeful that we would get a good view from High Cup, a well-known spectacular lookout.  But fate stepped in and when we got close the rain and cloud arrived and there was nothing to see but fog and a sheer drop-off.

Disappointed, but not willing to wait to see if it cleared, we continued on across the vast High Cup Plain in the rain, meeting a very wet and cold-looking, but cheerful, trail runner heading in the other direction.  The high plain had a desolate and remote feel to it as we trudged across, with the rain easing a little, then we began gradually descending as we would do for the rest of the day.

The Pennine Way followed a mix of soggy rocky trail and little-used farm roads down to the first of our waterfalls, Cauldron Snout, for the day where we stopped for lunch at the top.  We could see the difficult trail which followed the falls down to the valley below, and watched a hiker climb slowly and awkwardly upwards.  It was then our turn to negotiate the trail down and, although it only took twenty minutes or so, it was challenging and a bit scary in places.

At the base of the falls we turned downstream to follow the River Tees which was the story for the rest of the day.  Sometimes the going was easy and at other times slow and frustratingly technical.  Along the way we passed the impressive High Force and Low Force waterfalls where the River Tees pushed through narrow rocky gaps and gorges.

We were hoping to finish a little earlier, but it was 6:30pm by the time we finally reached our B&B in the little village Middleton in Teesdale.  It wouldn’t have bothered us much, except we have a very long day tomorrow and will need a very early start.