A wet walk
Jun. 10th, 2012 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe had agreed to walk today with S, and catch up on each other's news; and although we wavered as the weather forecast grew less promising, I thought we had a strategy - choose somewhere to walk where there was something to visit if we decided that it was just too wet. Somehow this got garbled in transmission, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
durham_rambler devised a route that took us within sight of Prudhoe Castle but only at the furthest point of a loop. We could have made a detour to visit, but only after we had walked several miles there, and still had to walk several miles back.
Luckily it never rained heavily enough for that to be a problem; but the wetness of the ground was another matter. I blame myself:durham_rambler showed me the maps he had printed off, and I saw that much of the route was through fields, and objected that it would be wet, and allowed myself to be persuaded - my mind was on other things, because we were expecting a dinner guest, and preparations had been delayed by another friend dropping in, but I should have known better: not just paths through fields of waving, drenching barley, but descents on woodland paths slippery with mud and treacherous with tree roots.
Our walk was an adaptation of two overlapping linear routes between railway stations at Pruhoe and Wylam. Wylam to Prudhoe via Horsley loops north out of the Tyne valley, and Prudhoe to Wylam runs south of the river, which it follows closely.
We started in the village of Horsley, at the north of the loop, and crossed those fields of barley to Whittle Dene and the first descent through woodland. This follows the burn down to Ovingham, past the group of brightly coloured cottages half hidden in the fringes of the clearing:
- a peaceful and charming location, provided you can manage not to think ofdesperance's lacerating story, A Terrible Prospect of Bridges.
We crossed the Tyne by Ovingham Bridge, and ate our picnic in the country park. I had brought sandwiches and S. brought dessert, so we compared our baking, and all was good. S. pronounced the walnut bread acceptable, though we agreed that it should have been allowed to rise for longer - yes, even longer. But it slices well, and the black walnuts (which I bought at Lucky's) were tasty - they have an almost gamey flavour which was disconcerting at first!
Even in the country park it was pretty wet underfoot, and the Tyne was very full and fast moving. We crossed Hagg Bridge and doubled back for a little way along the river, gradually climbing until we had an excellent view back along the Tyne to Prudhoe, all misty distances and hazy greens. The path turned along the ridge through woodland, which was tricky and not much fun, then emerged into more wet fields and roadwork and a very inadequate style and one last overgrown path so that at the very last minute we were soaked again, and nettled into the bargain.
Parts of it, in short, were excellent, but they were outweighed by the parts thst weren't. In dry weather the balance might well be reversed.
durham_rambler devised a route that took us within sight of Prudhoe Castle but only at the furthest point of a loop. We could have made a detour to visit, but only after we had walked several miles there, and still had to walk several miles back.Luckily it never rained heavily enough for that to be a problem; but the wetness of the ground was another matter. I blame myself:
durham_rambler showed me the maps he had printed off, and I saw that much of the route was through fields, and objected that it would be wet, and allowed myself to be persuaded - my mind was on other things, because we were expecting a dinner guest, and preparations had been delayed by another friend dropping in, but I should have known better: not just paths through fields of waving, drenching barley, but descents on woodland paths slippery with mud and treacherous with tree roots.Our walk was an adaptation of two overlapping linear routes between railway stations at Pruhoe and Wylam. Wylam to Prudhoe via Horsley loops north out of the Tyne valley, and Prudhoe to Wylam runs south of the river, which it follows closely.
We started in the village of Horsley, at the north of the loop, and crossed those fields of barley to Whittle Dene and the first descent through woodland. This follows the burn down to Ovingham, past the group of brightly coloured cottages half hidden in the fringes of the clearing:
- a peaceful and charming location, provided you can manage not to think of
desperance's lacerating story, A Terrible Prospect of Bridges.We crossed the Tyne by Ovingham Bridge, and ate our picnic in the country park. I had brought sandwiches and S. brought dessert, so we compared our baking, and all was good. S. pronounced the walnut bread acceptable, though we agreed that it should have been allowed to rise for longer - yes, even longer. But it slices well, and the black walnuts (which I bought at Lucky's) were tasty - they have an almost gamey flavour which was disconcerting at first!
Even in the country park it was pretty wet underfoot, and the Tyne was very full and fast moving. We crossed Hagg Bridge and doubled back for a little way along the river, gradually climbing until we had an excellent view back along the Tyne to Prudhoe, all misty distances and hazy greens. The path turned along the ridge through woodland, which was tricky and not much fun, then emerged into more wet fields and roadwork and a very inadequate style and one last overgrown path so that at the very last minute we were soaked again, and nettled into the bargain.
Parts of it, in short, were excellent, but they were outweighed by the parts thst weren't. In dry weather the balance might well be reversed.
