Upper Teesdale

Date: 31st January 2012
Route: Bowlees Visitor Centre - Dirt Pit - Etterdgill - Hurth edge Caves - Hanging Shaw - Sayer Hill Bridge - Watgarth Bridge - Cronkly Farm - High Force - Low Force - Bowlees Visitor Centre
Distance: - 12 miles

Weather: -Bright & Sunny with some snow flurries.

Arriving at Bob's in Barney we drove on to park in the layby just past Bowless Visitor Centre. Yet again we had struck lucky with the weather with a bright, sunny, albeit cold, day. There was still some snow on the ground particularly as we gained height but not enough to cause us any worries - so very different from the previous year!

The Snow covered Dales

So we set off at 10.00am, well wrapped up from the cold and headed off on a route we had covered a number of times previously. As we headed to the Caves we reviewed FC's friendly games, a defeat to Rovers and a convincing win against the Bulls. Why of why do we seem to have a problem winning against the Dobbins? Friendly or not they always seem to be more fired up for a derby game than we do. Still, our pre-season optimism was not wavering and our imminent first game against the Wire was met with a degree of positivity.

From the caves we headed towards Sayer Hill Bridge (the last time we'd been here was in Summer with the FAC boys. We managed to find some shelter from the wind and settled down for lunch. however, as the flasks came out the snow began to fall - for once Bob's short 15 min lunch break was not met with any complaints from this quarter.

Man / Bird / Rabbit!

The view from Cronkley Farm

 As we passed through Cronkly Farm and began our climb upward the scenery was pretty impressive with a nice dusting of snow despite the attempts of the sun to melt it away.











We were now following the Tees towards High Force, which was looking mightily impressive due to a fair amount of water flowing into the rivers.

High Force in full flow

Even Low Force was looking good as we passsed it and returned back to the car at 3.00pm.
A good look out for our second walk of the year.

Low Force