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Sunday's walk: Binchester to Bishop
Oct. 13th, 2009 08:35 pmPrelude
Me: That's funny, I thought I'd put a pair of walking socks with my boots...
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durham_rambler: Ah.
Me: Ah?
durham_rambler: I think I'm wearing them...
Requirements of the walk: that it be comparatively short, so we'd have time to get home and takes bath/shower before setting out for Cothersone to see the New Ropes; opportunities to admire autumn foliage; possibility of gathering sloes. Mission partly accomplished:
Our chosen route set off from near Binchester, skirted the Roman fort, came down to the Wear by Auckland Castle, up the hill into Bishop Auckland and down and up again, skirting the castle grounds, then through to Coundon to pick up the railway walk back to our starting point. This worked well, apart from a slight hiccup at the start: we had planned to leave the car at a picnic site on the railway, forgetting that County Durham has pre-empted the vandals by closing a large number of such sites itself. Instead we drove round to the next point at which the railway crossed the road: on the map this gave our walk an odd appearance, since we set off along the railway, met the footpath at the apex of our triangular route and promptly doubled back on ourselves, but on the ground his wasn't too obvious.
The first long descent through the fields gave us spectacular views over the Wear Valley, and easy enough walking (there was a sequence of rather notional stiles, some of which I couldn't have managed unaided, and one cross-field path had been ploughed out, but the winter wheat was still new enough that it was easily walked). A long stretch of hedgerow had been savagely trimmed - not altogether a bad thing, as the path ran quite close to the thorn bushes, but any fruit had been trimmed off too. At one end of the hedge a few leafy twigs had survived, and a lonely sloe, and for a while I thought it was the only one we would see. Then, just beyond the fort - or all we could see of the fort, which was a raised bank at the top of the field, we found a generous scattering of fruiting bushes along the field edge.durham_rambler thought he remembered a blackthorn hedge in the previous field, but we seem to have missed that one altogether.
The sun was warm by the time we came down to the river, and the Castle chapel was splendid on the skyline. I wished we'd packed a picnic, or at least a bottle of water, but we hadn't expected such mild weather. We persevered up and down the hills, and gathered some more sloes where the path ran alongside the golf course - these were more sparse, and I suspect someone had picked the riper and more accessible fruit before we got there. Also, there were nettles growing up among the thorns. Nonetheless, by the time we reached the railway walk, we were quite satisfied with our haul. And suddenly on this last section of our route, the bright colours began to appear, not just isolated branches but fiery masses of leaves and berries.
So I'd call that a success. And now I'll have to buy some gin.
Me: That's funny, I thought I'd put a pair of walking socks with my boots...
durham_rambler: Ah.Me: Ah?
durham_rambler: I think I'm wearing them...Requirements of the walk: that it be comparatively short, so we'd have time to get home and takes bath/shower before setting out for Cothersone to see the New Ropes; opportunities to admire autumn foliage; possibility of gathering sloes. Mission partly accomplished:
Our chosen route set off from near Binchester, skirted the Roman fort, came down to the Wear by Auckland Castle, up the hill into Bishop Auckland and down and up again, skirting the castle grounds, then through to Coundon to pick up the railway walk back to our starting point. This worked well, apart from a slight hiccup at the start: we had planned to leave the car at a picnic site on the railway, forgetting that County Durham has pre-empted the vandals by closing a large number of such sites itself. Instead we drove round to the next point at which the railway crossed the road: on the map this gave our walk an odd appearance, since we set off along the railway, met the footpath at the apex of our triangular route and promptly doubled back on ourselves, but on the ground his wasn't too obvious.The first long descent through the fields gave us spectacular views over the Wear Valley, and easy enough walking (there was a sequence of rather notional stiles, some of which I couldn't have managed unaided, and one cross-field path had been ploughed out, but the winter wheat was still new enough that it was easily walked). A long stretch of hedgerow had been savagely trimmed - not altogether a bad thing, as the path ran quite close to the thorn bushes, but any fruit had been trimmed off too. At one end of the hedge a few leafy twigs had survived, and a lonely sloe, and for a while I thought it was the only one we would see. Then, just beyond the fort - or all we could see of the fort, which was a raised bank at the top of the field, we found a generous scattering of fruiting bushes along the field edge.
durham_rambler thought he remembered a blackthorn hedge in the previous field, but we seem to have missed that one altogether.The sun was warm by the time we came down to the river, and the Castle chapel was splendid on the skyline. I wished we'd packed a picnic, or at least a bottle of water, but we hadn't expected such mild weather. We persevered up and down the hills, and gathered some more sloes where the path ran alongside the golf course - these were more sparse, and I suspect someone had picked the riper and more accessible fruit before we got there. Also, there were nettles growing up among the thorns. Nonetheless, by the time we reached the railway walk, we were quite satisfied with our haul. And suddenly on this last section of our route, the bright colours began to appear, not just isolated branches but fiery masses of leaves and berries.
So I'd call that a success. And now I'll have to buy some gin.
