Longish Walks: Pennine Way - Day 11: Middleton-in-Teesdale to Dufton

A Salmon River

After a night in a soft cosy bed we returned to Middleton to restart the walk.

Entomology – a good word:

Middle-ton – Middle village

In – in

Teesdale – the valley of the
River Tees

I don’t know where the other villages, Topton and Bottomton went to, or what they were called.

The Tees is a brown river stained by all the peat on the surrounding moors. They should make whisky. We set off along it. Up-stream on the true right of the river. We weren’t carrying much. We knew what delights awaited us – we were ready. We had all done this section of the walk before. But never together, so we were all eager to be the one pointing the finger.

Hard Sheep

The first of the sites is Low Force a water fall on the Tees. It’s not the highest water fall in England, (we know that). But if you are going over it in a canoe then I guess it looks pretty high.

Noooooooooooooo...

Life is tough in the dales – even the sheep are hard.

Then comes High Force, 21m – the big brother of Low Force – and much admired. Free from the true right but requires a bit of effort and ticketed from the effortless, car parked and pubbed other side. The free view is, of course, by far the best. It’s not the ‘est anything but its impressive none-the-less. We follow the river up and up heading towards the source. The path along the river, often more like crossing a boulder field.

Free view of High Force

Up an Up until the roar of something around the corner. Then you come face to face with 64m of cascading white (well brownish) water, the Tees floods through a small gap in the Whin Sill (a local rock band) down to 'start ' the river. The sheer power is spectacular – the dam at the top not so, but still.

Cauldron Snout

Three of the best waterfalls in one day. Waterfall heaven. If you like waterfalls.

Wild life.

Lunch and off we go. ((Small) Backpacks lighter but stomachs heavier, but still the redistribution makes walking easier.

On the moors again. Skirting, hopefully, the artillery range. No live fire they say but even a dud shell on the head can spoil your day. A new road was being built, spoiling the scenery. The road is needed so lazy people could come and see where the pretty scenery was before they built the road on it. On the plus side, we picked up, and carried, can you believe it, a nice bit of gold. Our pension.

Turns out to be iron pyrites. And who was the fool who carried it?

Beware low flying Artillery

The best bit of the day, hard to believe that there is more, was just around the corner and over the hill, and a bit of walking away. So we cornered, hilled and walked. High Cup, just a missing bit of the hill. A big bit admittedly. Carved out by a glacier earlier this ice age (yes: ‘this’ is the right word). One of the best geological views in the country, one of the best views full stop.

Stone-age Compass

The weather was perfect and the view sublime.

There were a couple of cyclists up there. Go figure.

One dropped an I-phone. We picked it up and chased and shouted. Luckily, he was a slow cyclist.

Further along the edge, the British Air Force put on a show for us. A heli-plane was playing in the area and I think played more just for us fools on the hill. All of the fools stopped and watched.

Down to Dufton, my father and a beer.

High Cup

Where has my hill gone

Air Force Entertainment

Dufton is amazing – I didn’t think these places actually existed except on TV.

Maybe the murder rate isn't high enough to get noticed.

		Cumulative
Distance Walked	34km	249km
Start Point	Middleton-in-Teesdale
End Point	Dufton
Via	Low Force, High Force, Cauldron Snout, High Cup
General Comments A day of delights Too many things for 1 day Should be more spread out