Butterflies and caterpillars

Date: 16th July 2014

Route: Bishop Auckland - Hunwick - Willington - Brancepeth - River Wear - Hunwick - Bishop Auckland

Distance: - 15 miles

Weather: - Warm, Humid & Sunny

What a glorious Summer we have been having and yet another fantastic day for a walk. Bob drove over to mine and we loaded the dogs into my car and drove the short distance to the viaduct car park. From here we headed along the railway track to Hunwick and eventually Willington, dogs in tow. 

The main topic of conversation as always was Hull FC’s performances. Another season the had promised sooooo much and again failed to deliver. Still, being the optimists we FC fans are we focused on the excellent development of our young players and convinced ourselves that next season would be “The One”!

Bob was also happy as his daughter had fixed a date for her wedding so I took great delight in reminding old Ebineezer of the extortionate costs of weddings!

Despite my winding him up I still had an invite to his brother-in-laws BBQ which was billed as “The not-to-be-missed Event of the Year”. Beer was free so I was sold from that point onwards!

We soon found ourselves at Brancepeth and Bob graciously allowed us a 10 minute pitstop to water the dogs and grab a banana. Then it was back up along the railway track before branching off towards the river Wear.

With all the good weather, sprinkled with a bit of rain, the local flora had really benefitted. We were blessed with a plethora of gorgeous flowers which in turn attracted the butterflies. We hit one field where the thistles had really took off and the surrounding air was alive with numerous species of butterflies - I’d never seen so many.

We found a nice spot by the river and stopped for lunch. The dogs were well knackered by now, little knowing how much further we still had left to go!

After a pleasant 30 minute break we resumed our walk along the river noticing how some particular plants were alive with caterpillars - that explained all the butterflies!

As the riverside path ran out we climbed up and away and re-joined the railway track at Hunwick and 20 minutes later arrived back at the car.

This was without doubt the best walk we’d had this year.

(NOTE: Once home the dogs never moved all afternoon / evening and had to be forced to go out for their evening walk!)