Important Info

Planned kilometres: 14 (cummulative 900)

Kilometres walked: 15 (cummulative 957)

% Completed (based on 1800km trip): 53.2%

Weather: Overcast in morning, sunny in afternoon

Pubs visited: The Ancient Unicorn, Black Horse Inn

Pints: 7 (cummulative 128)

Kms per pint: 7.5

Blisters: 0 (cummulative 4)

 

Tan Hill to Bowes

Overnight the weather had cleared up, so I took some photos of the Tan Hill Inn as I could actually see it today.

I wouldn’t think many pubs have their own snowplough and tracked snow vehicle, but they must get quite a bit of use in winter. There was an article on the wall of the Inn saying that on New Year’s Eve 2009 people in the pub were unable to leave the pub for three days as they were snowed in.

The two photos below are opposite directions from the pub car park and will give you an idea of how remote this pub is. The second photo is the actual direction I walked the Pennine Way today.

Occasionally you come across a stone Cairn which is a pile of stones that can be used as trail markers. Some of them are very large, well put together and look like they have been there for a long time, while others I think have just been built by walkers adding stones to an increasing pile.

As you can see I haven’t lost my cow whisperer skills, except I think the one on the right looks a bit mad cow.

Bowes castle is the tourist attraction in the town of Bowes, however much of the original castle was dismantled and the stones used to build some of the houses in the town.

Tonight, I am staying at The Ancient Unicorn which is a 16^th century coaching inn that was restored and opened a couple of years ago. A small issue when I got to the bar was that they didn’t have BT Sports to show the Champions League Final and this was the only bar in town. As you could watch it live on YouTube, Malcolm who was having a drink at the bar started calling around to organise HDMI cables and a laptop to watch the game. While I was in the Bar, George (who I walked with yesterday) arrived, and Malcolm kept us both very entertained with stories and jokes.

Photo of Malcom and me after successfully getting tv setup to watch the game.

The only issue was that the YouTube coverage locked up a few times, so at halftime a couple of tourists staying at the hotel decided to drive 4kms to the town of Barnard Castle to the Black Horse Inn to watch the second half on BT sports and I got a lift with them. I didn’t enjoy the second half as Liverpool lost to Real Madrid 3-1.