A doddle…

As both of us had afternoon appointments we decided on a shorter walk today - 6 miles. We were so familiar with the route it was a doddle. Parking the car in the centre of Haltwhistle we set off on a familiar walk known by locals as ‘up the burn’ towards another section of Hadrian’s wall. Haltwhistle is known as the centre of Britain. Why? Because the ancient civilisations, Egyptians, Greeks, Vikings and Romans usually situated the centres of their territories by calculating the mid point of the longest North/South axis, especially if other important mid points coincided. This title is contended by another town called Dunsop Bridge in the Rossendale valley, and the well known T.V. personality, Richard Hammond did a programme recently on this subject. The matter is still open to debate, you pays yer money and ye takes yer chances!

The Burn, leading towards the Roman wall at Cawfields, has recently been given a grant to refurbish the three bridges making it safer and easier for walkers. This very idyllic woodland walk by the river is within easy walking distance from the town car park and is used by local dog walkers and the Healthy Tuesday Walkers’ group. As we neared the Roman settlement where the auxiliaries had one of their camps we climbed our first stile and glancing back saw the first inkling of rain in the distance. The east wind was sharp but it did not affect the farmer on his quadbike bringing the nursing sheep more sustenance. There was even evidence of afterbirth among the new born lambs. The rain quickly caught up with us.

Presently we were walking along the vallum constructed by the Romans as extra defenses. In no time we had reached Melkridge camp site on the outskirts of the town with its few campers dotted round the perimeter. Traversing over fields we encountered cows grazing and to my horror our route took us between the herd. There was no alternative. A. Wainwright , the author of the Coast to Coast walk, was known to have such an aversion to the creatures, he would often travel by road to escape them. Preparing for our last big fund raising walk, St. Cuthbert’s way, a local farmer invited me to his cow shed to help with my ‘phobia’. He put me into the pen with young bullocks and then talked me through the experience. It did help. However just as we were on the last mile of our walk above town we were crossing the last field when a herd of young cows took more than a passing interest in us and headed towards us threateningly, a bull was bringing up at the rear. We retreated towards the gate at a steady pace so as not to frighten them. Then at a safe distance, we noticed they charged up the hill out of view giving us the opportunity to retrace our steps towards tour destination. Not ‘out of the wood’ yet we had to climb on to a small wall by the banking to avoid two horses blocking our path to the gate on to the roadside. Phew!

On entering the car park at the end of the walk, we were accosted by a lady waving frantically in recognition of us. This was Jean Norman who had met Tony (McAvoy) in Haltwistle recently and was curious to know about the A.O.S. sign on his car. She explained that she was not a Catholic but was now actively promoting the walk . Well done Jean. Her efforts, are like tiny ripples on the water……. Before we had climbed into the car for home, more acquaintances were approaching us wishing us well and pledging donations towards the walk.
Veronica & Eddie

This entry was posted on 20/04/2007 at 08:46 am and is filed under Progress report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.