Tuesday, 2nd April 2013 -17.3 miles
Langdon Beck Youth Hostel
Stopping at Langdon Beck Youth Hostel, which only opened for the season today (which explains why we didn’t do this bit in the most logical order …). There is more snow here than at Dufton. It’s quite a bit higher.
Tees Valley
The Pennine Way passes the Youth Hostel. We decided against our original plan of heading through the Pennines towards Dufton to join up the route, as the valley from this end looks just as snowy as where we gave up! So we headed south, following the Tees valley.
We got slightly lost at one point, going right round a small hill, rather than across the top. On the return route, we worked out why. The paths from the farm were so full of snow, we just kept going rather than looking out for tracks heading off uphill. After that, it was fairly straightforward.
Trudging through snow – are we lost?
We passed High Force, (on the free side, without the car park, etc) – England’s highest waterfall, and somewhere I’ve often thought I’d like to visit. Pretty impressive today with massive icicles clinging to the rock faces either side!
High Force
We went through an area where they are concerned about a disease of juniper bushes, and we had to disinfect our boots before leaving.
Disinfecting boots
More, but smaller, impressive falls further down the river. We moved slightly away from the river as we headed to the outskirts of Middleton-in-Teesdale, a very pleasant market town.
Lots of lapwings to be seen here
Returned by the same route. We saw more people on this route than the previous 2 days, mostly around High Force, but still very quiet.
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