Important Info

Planned kilometres: 26 (cummulative 953)

Kilometres walked: 33 (cummulative 1001) – cummulative fixed for error in earlier day

% Completed (based on 1800km trip): 55.7%

Weather: Sunny

Pubs visited: George & Dragon Inn

Pints: 4 (cummulative 132)

Kms per pint: 7.6

Blisters: 0 (cummulative 4)

 

Middleton-In-Teesdale to Garrigill

Yesterdays walk was shorter than I thought it would be and today was longer than I thought it would be (and I didn’t get lost) so I think I need go to navigation school.

 

The first part of today’s walk is on the Pennine Way and then I leave the Way as it goes west and then north and if I walk the road it cuts 20+ miles off the walk and at this stage of the walk I am all about reducing the distance I need to walk.

 

The first thing on todays walk was stone sheep monument with the inscription “A wonderful place to be. A Walker”.

 

The first waterfall on the River Tees is called ‘Low Force’.

 

The second waterfall which they charge an entrance fee to is called ‘High Force’. From the signage at the waterfalls I learnt that Force comes from the Norse word Foss which is the Old Norse word for waterfall. This also help explain why the local areas use ‘dale’, ‘beck’ and ‘fell’ which came with the Vikings over a thousand years before.

 

During my walk you can buy various items (mainly eggs, flowers, etc.) from side of the road. This was a good example of an entrepreneur at work. Yesterday on a walk through a farm, someone had set up a tuck shop with soft drinks and chocolate bars (with honesty jar) at the back of their property. Both George and I stopped and brought something.

 

Tonight I ‘m staying at a small village called Garrigill. As I was walking along the road Google maps said to go down a small road with a sign saying no vehicles allowed past a certain point and not to rely on GPS. I couldn’t see any village as at all as it was hidden right down in the valley and I only got sight of it as I was almost at the bottom of the road. The village is very remote and doesn’t have any mobile phone coverage but pub and B&B both have wifi.

 

On my wander around the town, there was a family playing rugby league in the small green and a couple of people outside the pub taking advantage of the remaining sun.

 

The village only has a couple of hundred residents and a pub which was repossessed a couple of years ago and was re-opened by a local less than a year ago. The town only has one pub and a post office (open part time hours).

 

I am staying at a B&B in town and the lady running it says she advises the pub each day of the number of guests she has staying as the pub is the only open for dinner in town. I walked in the George & Dragin Inn and said I was staying at the B&B and Dave the landlord automatically set up a tab for me. A  local couple came in the pub and got pints to take away and walked off down the street drinking their pints. You have got to love that sort of customer service.

 

The pub is a coaching inn from 1622 and still has the original flagstones on the floor. It is great to see this sort of building re-opened as a pub before they are lost and turned into housing.