Pennine Bridleway, Limestone Way & Monsal Trail - 23rd Sept ‘22

A gorgeous sunny Autumn day in the Dales. For all my moaning about Brunnehilda’s weather record, I’ve been really lucky this week. The only bad weather I had was the travel day!

A standard start to the day - a lie in, a quick breakfast of bacon and egg bagels and out for a walk in the sunshine before 11am.

I was tempted to redo a walk i’d done before but I thought if I did a walk I didn’t know it might give my idle brain something else to focus on rather than dwell on stuff that doesn’t need dwelling on. So I did.

I started off in familiar territory and ended up that way as well. However, the 2 hours in the middle was all spent covering new ground.

I climbed down via the Pennine Bridleway to the River Wye in Chee Dale. This is my usual access to the nice walks just over the A6 at the end of the farm drive. Then the new stuff started, following the Bridleway out of Wye Dale up onto the top. 

I followed a few footpaths that cut some corners as the Pennine Bridleway doesn’t seem to go in a straight line. Another shout out to cousin Di for recommending the OS App - I would have never have picked my way through these little footpaths without it.

I went through the pretty village of Wormhill and then on to the head of Monks Dale. I considered walking down this Dale but decided to climb up onto the ridge and pick up another Bridleway - The Limestone Way. The good thing about these bigger Bridleways is that they have stone walls either side thereby keeping the sheep from the sheep dogs so the 2 hounds were off the lead for most of the time.

I crashed out in the sunshine and shared a snack and drink with the dogs before pressing on down The Limestone Way and onto Millers Dale. I was now on familiar territory again and picked up the Monsal Trail.

I’d seen just a couple of walkers until then (over 2.5 hours in) but the Trail was a lot busier - although not too bad. This was probably the most boring part of the walk so I was quite happy to get to the foot of the hill again and slowly make my way up the Dale side to the A6 and on back to Brunnehilda. 

The walk was just over 8 miles long and took me about 3 1/2 hours. So during my 4 walking days this week I’ve done 11, 10, 11 and then 8 miles. Henry Vths army averaged 10 miles a day marching through Northern France during the Agincourt campaign so I was quite pleased with this. Although I didn’t have fully body armour on and wasn’t being fired on by the French. Mind you they didn’t have 2 crazy collies to look after!? As you can see my mind was on other things today other than dwelling on my mental state - good job too!

Relaxed for 30 mins and then a quick wash and brush up before heading out to Roston - the other side of Ashbourne. Met up with Helen for a cuppa at the farm and then we headed out with her and Pip to their local for a bite to eat. It was really nice - the food and the company. Missed Karl this time, he was still travelling back from a work trip, but it was smashing to catch up with 2 of the 3 Davis’. Although towards the end of our meal, the pub got very busy and my lousy ears weren’t coping too well!

Back to Brunnehilda for the usual Cadburys, Better Call Saul and blogging. Up early in the morning - I want to be on the road by 9.30am.

It’s been a mixed week but, as always with these Brunnehilda trips, I have nothing but nice memories to think back on. I’ve been on some fantastic walks and been blessed by the weather. It’s a shame my brain wasn’t in the right place at the start of the week but i still think processing this crappy stuff in my head and then trying to write it down does help!

Not sure when I’ll get out in Brunnehilda again but I’ve made my mind up I will be planning another Northumberland trip next September. And who knows, there may be someone other than a crazy fungi lady and 2 potty sheep dogs to share it with!? But if there’s not, that’s also fine.

Topley Head Farm:

Pros:

1) Great position

2) Good value

3) Quiet

4) Good 4G

5) Loads of room to spread out 

6) Great walks from the site- 10 mins from Chee Dale

7) Just off the A6 so easy to access / find

8) Great views / sunsets

Cons:

1) Long(ish) grass

2) Patchy hard standing

3) Annnoying and unnecessary (at the moment) gate

Onwards to Derbyshire - 22nd Sept ‘22

Not much to report on today but in the spirit of “the travel blog”, I’ll do a quick one. Excitement is usually hard to find in these blogs but today’s post is the very definition of “slim pickings”!

The weather broke this morning. 4 lovely dry (and sunny) days so no complaints about the drizzle I woke up to this morning. It’s always nice to arrive in the sunshine and leave in the drizzle!

Red letter day today though - I had a Brunnehilda shower. The first since I arrived. I know some of you will find that disgusting but in my defence you can get yourself and all your orifices as clean as a whistle without showering. Plus the dogs don’t seem to mind - in fact, between you and me, I think they prefer my smell the dirtier I get! But, because I’m meeting “company” over the next couple of days, I thought it only right to make the effort! I haven’t got within 5 yards of a living person in 4 days so really there was no motivation. The shower worked well though and didn’t use up too much water - although the electric boiler heater is playing up again so I had to use gas! 

No breakfast today. After a chat with my neighbours, who were packing up at the same time as me, I got started on the regular routine. Like Kim and I had, this couple had clear jobs to do individually to get ready for the off and they worked away very efficiently. I was doing everything on my Todd but i still managed to be ready to go at the same time as them which I was pleased about. I was also pleased with more excellent backing up and hitching skills. After 3 years I’m finally getting good at this sh*t! They were heading home to Manchester and I was heading for Derbyshire. We both pulled out the camp, like a couple of travellers being moved on, at about 10.15.

The traffic on the A1 was not great with several Road works either side of Newcastle slowing me down. I wanted to break the back of the journey before stopping so I went 3 hours before arriving at Wetherby soon after 1pm. There were lots of spare caravan parking spaces so I parked with ease. 

Hoisin Duck with rice and then a brisk walk around the dog walk was all that was needed to recharge all 3 of our batteries!

Arrived at Topley Bank Farm at about 4. Sat Nav took me all through the suburbs of South Sheffield just as the schools we’re kicking out - yuck! So all in all, not the best of journeys. 

Good news though - we’re on our own! So the dogs have the field to themselves and i got to practice reversing without any critical alpha male judgemental eyes on me. Ironically, I backed her onto the pitch beautifully with no bugger to witness it - bloody typical!

Time for a quick 45 minute walk in the rain to the other (fully booked!) caravan site at Blackwell and back. Dogs fed and me scrubbed and changed before getting out to meet Mandy for a meal at The Fishpond pub in Matlock Bath. 

As always, it was lovely to catch up and have a good old giggle. Particularly nice for me given the only chats I’ve had over the last 4 days have been with a NT volunteer, a Mancunian caravan couple, a slightly bonkers fungi collector and a couple of schizophrenic collies! Mandy’s dog Ethel was perfectly behaved in the pub - I left Bigbee and her mate in the car to reflect on their antisocial behaviour yesterday!

Back to Brunnehilda soon after 10. Just enough time for a Costa coffee (bought on the way home), Cadburys Mint chocolate (a new one!) and an episode of Better Call Saul.

Jeez, it’s quite here! No complaints from me though.

Embleton Bay:

Pros:

1) Great position

2) Good value

3) Very tidy and well kept 

4) Reasonable 4G

5) Water tap next to pitch

6) Lovely walk to Coastal Footpath

7) Great village pub - 20 mins walk away.

Cons:

1) I really can’t think of one!

Holy Island - 21st Sept ‘22

A slightly shorter one tonight! But another great day in glorious Northumberland. More of the same I’m afraid - long walks, beaches and antisocial dogs. No psycho-analysis tonight though - I’m all self analysed out and just a bit pooped!

3rd day and still no rain. In fact it was warm sunshine until about 1pm. It clouded over then but came back later in the evening.

Out by 10 this morning as I wanted to get to Holy Island before high tide and the causeway shutting (at 11.15). Still had time for a bacon and egg bagel though! In fact I was parking up in a very pot holed car park just over the causeway - quite a long way from the town / action - at about 10.45.

This was planned as I wanted to try and walk around the island and end up at the castle / village. A bloody good plan as it turned out. Even though the village, castle and monastery were all heaving it was so very quiet in the far flung corners of the island.

Here again this is something I would have never have done with Kim - we would have parked up at the main car park and headed for the action. I’ve got to say though, today I was glad I wasn’t doing it that way.

I really can’t find the words to do the walk justice - and all in the perfect autumn sunshine as well. So, as my words have let me down, I’ll stick to the geographical facts:

Parked up at Jack Mathisons Bank car park and headed across the dunes. There was a warning about something called Peri peri grass (yeh, who knew eh?) that would stick to anything - especially dogs. And by jingo they were right - the 2 collies have more bits of undergrowth stuck on them than you could possibly imagine - the scissors will be out when I get home!

A short stumble over the dunes then onto the biggest expanse of empty beach I’ve seen outside of Birkdale on a cold day. Then, at the end of this beach I picked up the footpath that went all the way around the island. It passed through some beautiful secluded bays, warm and sheltered dunes, exposed cliff (although not very high) edges and a nature reserve. Snipe Point and Emmanuel Head we’re the main highlights before getting to Lindisfarne Castle. 

Here we suddenly hit the crowds and the dogs had to be on a lead. And as if by magic, the wonderfully behaved Tilly turned into a monster. Bigbee from Trainspotting had returned. If she could speak she would have been saying to every dog (and crikey, there were an amazing amount of dogs) - “what you Fcukin’ lookin’ at”. Followed by a mean sounding growl, a bit of a lunge and all this while wagging her friggin tail!

She calmed down eventually and we had a fairly uneventful walk through the village. Before we headed out to the village, I did ask the National Trust folks if they had somewhere I could keep the dogs safe while I had a quick look around the castle. She said no, and that most people take turns. I pointed out it was hard to take turns with myself. She seemed quite surprised I was on my own - I took that as a compliment!! She did offer a place to tie them up round the back but given little miss “whatyoulookinat”, I didn’t think that was a wise move.

I did manage to find a nice quiet bench and read my book for a bit - with a gorgeous view to compensate for the miserable / snappy hound tied up at my feet!

We walked around the town and monastery but it was soo busy. I wanted to get a coffee but the queues were lined with well behaved dogs on leads. I then fancied a pint but the beer garden was peppered with dogs lazing around minding their own business. If I took Bigbee in there it would be like trying to tiptoe through a minefield. So nothing for it but to head to the main car park and find an ice cream van - without a queue involving a dog!

I bought a bloody huge tub of vanilla which I shared with the dogs - God, they both really love ice cream! The empty tub served as a water holder for the dogs as I had once again forgotten their bowl. Earlier on in the walk I / they had made do with a rock with a little hollow in the middle.

Once more across the dunes - even bigger and longer this time. And then onto that aforementioned huge beach again. It wasn’t quite so nice now as the sun was gone and there was a bit of a wind in our face. We got back to the car at about 3.15. 

I had a WhatsApp call scheduled with the kids at 5.30 so I decided the best bet would be to head home and pick up some food on the way. I drove through Bamburgh as I considered stopping there but the call of fish and chips from Neptunes in Seahouses was too much to ignore! I went here last year and I remember them being particularly good. 

Parked up, bought them (with a curry sauce) and headed back to Brunnehilda. And yes, I remembered correctly - it was good!

I thought I’d kill 2 birds with one stone and go to the beach, for the dogs final walk of the Northumberland stay, while WhatsApping the kids. We sat on the beach and had the call. Dodgy reception meant I had to head up onto the golf course (get a bit higher up) half way through. It was lovely to see and speak to them all - although I’m not sure how much they heard of me over the sea, the wind, me shouting at the dogs (especially Benny who seemed to want to go off with all the passing walkers and their dogs) and the lousy reception. It did me a world of good though.

Back home to Brunnehilda and more of the usual. Sat out reading my book with a beer, then an episode of the Waltons and a couple of episodes of Better Call Saul and a pot of tea - rock and roll 🤟. I even found time for a sneaky supper as well. 

Oh well, back down to Derbyshire tomorrow and hopefully some non-canine, non-fungi related conversations mixed in with the solo walking.

It’s been a strange trip. I don’t think my head was quite in the right place to fully appreciate it but each day has got better and … this bloody place is amazing - so, just like Arnie, “I’ll be back!”.

Oh finally, say hello to Clive … I rescued him on the huge Holy Island beach. He was a long way from safety but had the good grace not to nip me as I took him down to the waters edge. You’re welcome Clive!

Alnmouth, Cragside and Warkworth - 20th Sept ‘22

WARNING: A very long blog with an optional extra self indulgent bit at the end!

A fabulous day. Yesterday was all about seeing similar things from a different angle, whereas today was all about seeing new things. I had 3 nice but very different experiences today - each one wonderful in its in way but, due to the melancholic mood that’s still about me, I’d only rate it as a 6 out of 10 sorta day - yesterday was nearer a 4!

I decided to go south today and north tomorrow- after having a car free day yesterday. But the day didn’t start properly until noon. The normal lie in was followed by a more modest breakfast of bagels and bovril. I was washed and heading for Alnwick by 10.30. Visits to the petrol station, Argos (pick up Charlie’s birthday present) and Sainos (for a new battery and a few provisions) meant that it was gone 11.30 before I punched Alnmouth into the sat nav.

I’d seen a travel programme on it a few years ago and it looked like nice - so, why not? The name sort of gives it away but it’s down river from Alnwick where the river Aln meets the coast. I have no idea how the locals pronounce Alnmouth? If it’s anything like Alnwick, then it will be “Ann-muth”?

I drove through the wee town and obviously Kim came to mind. It’s the sort of place she / we would have stopped at and whiled away an extremely pleasant hour or so. Not something I would be doing today though - I still actively avoid this sort of thing. She loved it so much and it’s one of those things that could never be the same without her.

So, I headed for the beach car park. I don’t think I had a plan when I set out except I had to walk north as the river got in the way of walking southwards on the beach. The great thing about up here is, as long as it’s not high tide, you can walk out on the beach and then back on the coast path thereby creating a bit of a circular walk. And that’s just what I did. Once in the car park, I wasted 30 mins hanging on the phone to book an MRI. Got it booked for 3rd October - seemed a long time to wait but then reminded myself how blimin’ lucky I was to have the benefit of private healthcare!!

The dogs did their normal manic start to a beach walk. Running in and out of the water, barking at the waves (Tilly) and emptying their bowels at least a couple of times each!

There was a sprinkling of folks and dogs around - not as busy as yesterday- and it got less busy the further we walked away from Alnmouth. In fact at one stage we had a patch of beach to ourselves for 15 mins or so. 

There was a series of beaches / bays connected by rocky / seaweedy outcrops. As the tide was out you could walk through the rocks and seaweed to get to the next bit of sand.

We walked about 3 miles along the beach along Alnmouth Bay, Fluke Hole and ending up at Boulder Haven. I got off the beach at Boulmer, I noticed on my OS App that there was a pub in the village. But I suddenly changed my mind and thought I’d like to get to Cragside - a close by National Trust property before 3. So, at about 1.30 I ignored said pub and headed back on the coast path. The 3 miles was a lot quicker on the path than on the beach (even though some of the path was indeed on the beach!) so I was back in the car park by 2.30.

I arrived at Cragside at 3pm. And this is where I had my only significant conversation of the day - excluding dogs that is! The NT volunteer on the gates / welcome centre was lovely. I gave her my Caravan Club card by mistake so I think she soon realised what she was dealing with. A lot of chat about what was on offer at the property, where to go and what to do with the dogs etc. 

I have to say, the grounds were huge and very impressive. The house is very quirky and most of the rooms were open. It took a full hour to walk round. There were some nice bits (like the private Turkish Baths) but it was no Canons Ashby!

I grabbed a takeaway coffee and then drove round the Carriage Route. A lovely winding trail around the whole estate. I didn’t fancy walking the dogs as a lot of it would be on the lead, I was warned (by the nice lady volunteer) of blue algae on the lake and the surrounding forests looked quite thick - I was worried about Benny getting lost again! Kim and I would have headed straight for the tea room but that was another Kim favourite that I avoided!

Unsurprisingly after only a 2.5 hour walk, Tilly was up for more exercise. I tapped in Warkworth into the sat Nav - another place that I’d heard of and that looked nice. It’s about 3 miles south of Alnmouth so I retraced my journey from earlier in the afternoon. And we crossed some gorgeous and wild scenery! I thought Derbyshire was hard to beat but I think I’m switching my allegiances to Northumberland as my favourite county - so so beautiful, both coast and inland.

Warkworth didn’t disappoint. Another pretty little town, although by the time I got there (just gone 5) it was shutting down. At the end of the High Street was a mighty impressive ruined castle. It was shut - obviously - but I got the dogs out and we had a walk round. The sun was really out now. We had some sun earlier but not as much as yesterday - however it was now a really lovely evening so I just followed the sign down to the river and checked out a nice short (1.5 mile?) walk on my OS App.

It was gorgeous walking along the banks of the a river Coquet - virtually no one about. The dogs enjoyed being in water that they could drink!! There was a ruined Hermitage on the other side of the river bank - closed! You couldn’t see it from the trees / undergrowth. Turns out it’s closed permanently which explained the semi submerged ferry row boat! 

Back home via a lovely footpath on the outskirts of the town approaching the Castle from another angle. It has lots of interesting history (including ownership by the Percys and lots of visiting Medieval English and Scottish Kings. Interestingly the experts can’t be certain who built it - Henry II of England or Prince Henry of Scotland!?

And so home to Brunnehilda. It was gone 6.30 by now and even though Matilda was up for one more final beach walk - I wasn’t! I fed the dogs outside the van and read my book for 30 mins before heading inside and cooking the other half of the pork loins with pepper sauce. This time, thanks to my trip to Sainos, I had dressing for the salad and some microwave fries to spice things up a tad!!

The usual end to the day - 2 more Waltons episodes, blogging and an episode of Better Call Saul on Netflix. All washed down with 2 cups of tea and quite a lot of Maltesers!!

So the end of another lovely Northumberland day. In theory it couldn’t have been any nicer. In practice it was better than yesterday but my mojo still hasn’t caught up fully yet. 

I’ll leave you with this nice picture of 2 very stiff and knackered collies. If you want to read more about my self indulgent psycho analysis then read on. However if you would rather not then I totally and completely understand - why would you? This bit is really just for my benefit (in a cleansing sort of way) and for anyone else that might be going through similar sh*t and may find my honest and embarrassing thought processes helpful.

After more self reflection - an advantage (or not!) of spending a whole day with just your own thoughts - I have came to 2 rather embarrassing conclusions. Both confirming significant character flaws but, as I keep telling myself when listening to these odd people breaking down in tears about the death of a privileged 96 year old nice lady that they’d never met - we all handle grief differently - AND THATS OK!

1) I soon figured out that my most successful and positive coping mechanism was to focus on a happier future. There will be good times, exciting changes, fun and laughter around the corner and everyday is one step closer to it. Very much a Bobby (youngest son) approach to life! Problem is, this isn’t working quite so well this week and I think it’s all about my recent “good ear” deafness, cough and lots of tests to schedule. I know it’s complete and utter nonsense but when the last MRI test you can remember resulted in the person you love with all your heart and soul being told that they have terminal stage 4 cancer, it’s hard to shift your mind into thinking about a happy future! This is very selfish and I know irrational but there it is. I am aware of it so I can keep fighting it.

2) I said I was comparing this year with last years visit to Northumberland. Has my grief / mindset shifted? Well the answer is definitely… yes.

The good news is that I can now walk by 60 year old + couples and not wish them dead! There are 3 other caravans on this site all with 60 year old couples with dogs. I’m not angry and I’m not jealous. 

I think the self pity is much better too - well at least it has been. I can’t think the last time I felt the world was against me. And I’m not getting so angry with people and things that don’t matter - although the demise of BJ has probably helped that!!?

Now here’s the other difference. I still miss Kim so much and always think what she would be saying / doing but, I’ve noticed that, while I would give anything for her to be with me on these trips, I’m feeling more loneliness than I am desperately missing Kim. It’s as if I know, as much as I long to, I can’t share these things with her but I need to share with someone - anyone but 2 stupid collies!

Anyway, another day of indulgent self reflection tomorrow - unless I meet that nice fungi lady again or someone else that takes me away from my own thoughts! I suspect I’ll keep them to myself from now on though as I’m fully cleansed?!