Today didn’t begin as sunny as Saturday and didn’t get off to a great start. Our maps and guides didn’t alert us to the building of a new bypass across the start of the walk. We were met by assorted lorries, diggers and, fortunately, friendly men it hard hats. Somehow we managed to blag our way across the building site, through treacherous mud, to become the first people to walk on the new tarmac and rejoin the farm road we were meant to be on.
The highlight of this walk had to be the section in the Allenbanks nature reserve, where the sun came out in time for us to eat our lunch looking down over the river Allen while a party of long tailed tits entertained us.
Beltingham was a discovery – a very small but lovely village – just a few houses, an old church and a tiny green, more of a grass roundabout really. One of the yew trees in the churchyard is thought to be at least 900 years old.
We then climbed up through farmland, notable for its kneeling sheep (All pretty weird up here) and past the oddly named Unthank estate. I don’t know whether it was the gathering gloom and our tired minds as well as the name but in contrast to pretty Beltingham, it felt the sort of place Dickens would be inspired by.
Flora and Fauna: heron, another goldcrest (blimey, we’re on a roll), long tailed tits, bullfinches loads of pheasants; cowslip in flower.
Transport: Our car to Haydon Bridge; train to Hexham and another one back to Haydon Bridge (Don’t ask!). Car home (eventually!).
