Airlie Ramblers: Mincing round Teesdale

Date: 12th October 2012
Route: Bowlees - Dirt Pit Farm - Caves via Ettersgill - Valence Lodge - Langeden Beck - Sayer Hill Farm - Whatgarth Bridge - High Force - Low Force - Bowlees
Distance: - ~12 miles
Weather: - Dry, bright and windy with some showers later on

A combination of workload, dyer wet English weather and a major house rebuild at chez Garton meant it had been a few weeks since our last venture out. So when our diaries chucked out a free day and the forecasters predicted a dry day we donned our walking gear and headed up the Dales.
Starting at Bowlees at 10.45am in the sun we heade off up towards Dirt Pit Farm. Although the fields were wet the tracks weren'e too bad.

The Dales

Conversation as always started with a review of FC's season which we felt had been pretty good all things considered (made sweeter by Rovers poor season ans subsequent loss of players!). Optimism for 2013 is high - but then it always is prior to the first game!!! Feelings were mixed over Leeds victory over the Wire but hey, Wigan got nowt of note ;0)

Time to check the map

We carried on along the farm tracks into a head on strong wind towards the caves. it was still bright and sunny but the going was made difficult due to the stength of the wind. After briefly discussin Jimmy Saville we turned our attention to putting the world to rights. In particular all the waste we keep observing in all walks of industry. What is frustrating is the knowledge that we could save so many different organisation money and improve their efficiency if they just asked for help.

Flooded fields

Anyway we reached the caves and after a quick map stop we headed across a large field towards Langden Beck. With all the rain we'd had the field was absolutely sodden with not a dry spot to be found. Standing stationary for more than 4 secs resulted in you sinking into the swamp-like ground. The only way to cross the field was to hop, skip & jump our way from tuft to tuft, trying not to stop for more than a second or two. anyone watching would have seen a couple of large blue blobs 'mincing' their way across a farmers field. It was all to no avail as after 10 mins of poncing around we arrived at a gate and track with our feet well and truly soaked.

Who'd want to be a mole?

Langden Beck

Bob @ Langden Beck

We were now on more firm ground as we walked towards the Langden Beck pub (no chance of Bob letting us stop for a drink there!) and then off along the river bank. At 12.50pm we found a nice sheltered spot behind a stone wall were we stopped for a 20 minute lunch break. Within 5 minutes of setting off again the rain came down. It wouldn't have been too bad had it not been for the driving wind which ensured we got a soaking down one side of our bodies.

Looking back down to Wattgarth Bridge

We followed the river to Wattgarth Bridge before climbing up heading towards High Force. The rain and sun were competing to see who was going to win as we began to slowly dry out.

The water falls were all in full flow and and as we descended towards the quarry our path became more difficult due to flooding. Some of the stepping stones across the becks were under water meaning a bit of deft footwork across fence wires.