Day 10: Bernard Castle and Bowes
The first half of today was great, the second half frustrating.
I woke up and found I was looking right at the big dipper. I felt well rested and couldn't go back to sleep, so in the pre-dawn light I got showered and pack and set off. The pennine way was starting a 4 mile stretch of pavement, when a side trail called the "tees railway walk" and it lead through many of the little villages in the area along an abandoned rain line. I decided I had both time and inclination, so I went down the path. I enjoyed the wild flowers along the path and even gave myself a little boutanier. By 9:00am I had come to the last of the villages and still had not found an inn open for breakfast. I had two choices: go on towards my days destination (the village of Bowes, which I had by then been told was tiny) or take yet another path to the town of Castle Bernard. Both towns were about 4 miles from where I was, and they are about 4 miles from each other. I chose to go to Castle Bernard,which the locals call Berny. The path was not an established track but rather a series of field that you entered at a gate or stile and there was an arrow pointing the general direction of the next gate, this made it interesting, but slightly less enjoyable than I had hoped.
Berny is the town I got a bus transfer at yesterday. It is where all the shops in the area are and it has a ruined castle but I didn't find anything I really wanted to do or see there. I ended up taking a nap on the greens and when I woke up I was ready to move on. When I enquired I found you cant actually walk the 4 miles between where I was and where I wanted to be. They are connected by a major hiway or you could go back the way I came. By this point I had walked 12 miles and didn't want to retrace it all and then walk the road I had avoided walking a few hours earlier, so I took the bus to Bowes. My map mentions that Bowes is the site of some Roman ruins and ruins of another castle, but it turns out the castle is on top of the roman site and there is only about five minutes worth of looking around to do.
It was 2:00pm and I was where I had planned to spend the night. Going on down the Way was not an option because the next place to sleep is 13 miles and that is tomorrow's docket, however I could go up the Way towards where I was yesterday and take an alternate route on the trail and sleep in a hostel rather than a campsite. This appealed to me since I had heard talk of rain and need to charge some batteries, so I set out. Once again the trail started by hugging a road but the turned and took me into rugged highlands pasture being grazed by sheep and goats. Along this stretch the way is hard to pick out but they have posts in the ground every few hundred yards so you can follow it... Until the posts stop. 2 miles out from Bowes (about 1/2 my trip) I found myself in a field of mixed bunch grass at least knee high with a million goat paths going every where. I set off towards the fenceline I had been going towards but I never found a marked gate. I did find a truck path and followed it for a while before concluding it wouldn't take me anywhere worth going. I was in a area between my maps and couldn't figure out where I needed to be so after an hour of bushwhacking I gave up and headed back to Bowes.
I just went out to dinner since it is now raining and I didn't want to sit outside and cook. The food was far but filing and this inn is warm and dry. It is only 8:30 and the sky will not be dark for an hour but lacking option I think I am going to climb into bed now and try to get some sleep and stay dry. Tomorrow is straight forward cross country hiking over a rather high pass (for the area) and my body can use the sleep.
I woke up and found I was looking right at the big dipper. I felt well rested and couldn't go back to sleep, so in the pre-dawn light I got showered and pack and set off. The pennine way was starting a 4 mile stretch of pavement, when a side trail called the "tees railway walk" and it lead through many of the little villages in the area along an abandoned rain line. I decided I had both time and inclination, so I went down the path. I enjoyed the wild flowers along the path and even gave myself a little boutanier. By 9:00am I had come to the last of the villages and still had not found an inn open for breakfast. I had two choices: go on towards my days destination (the village of Bowes, which I had by then been told was tiny) or take yet another path to the town of Castle Bernard. Both towns were about 4 miles from where I was, and they are about 4 miles from each other. I chose to go to Castle Bernard,which the locals call Berny. The path was not an established track but rather a series of field that you entered at a gate or stile and there was an arrow pointing the general direction of the next gate, this made it interesting, but slightly less enjoyable than I had hoped.
Berny is the town I got a bus transfer at yesterday. It is where all the shops in the area are and it has a ruined castle but I didn't find anything I really wanted to do or see there. I ended up taking a nap on the greens and when I woke up I was ready to move on. When I enquired I found you cant actually walk the 4 miles between where I was and where I wanted to be. They are connected by a major hiway or you could go back the way I came. By this point I had walked 12 miles and didn't want to retrace it all and then walk the road I had avoided walking a few hours earlier, so I took the bus to Bowes. My map mentions that Bowes is the site of some Roman ruins and ruins of another castle, but it turns out the castle is on top of the roman site and there is only about five minutes worth of looking around to do.
It was 2:00pm and I was where I had planned to spend the night. Going on down the Way was not an option because the next place to sleep is 13 miles and that is tomorrow's docket, however I could go up the Way towards where I was yesterday and take an alternate route on the trail and sleep in a hostel rather than a campsite. This appealed to me since I had heard talk of rain and need to charge some batteries, so I set out. Once again the trail started by hugging a road but the turned and took me into rugged highlands pasture being grazed by sheep and goats. Along this stretch the way is hard to pick out but they have posts in the ground every few hundred yards so you can follow it... Until the posts stop. 2 miles out from Bowes (about 1/2 my trip) I found myself in a field of mixed bunch grass at least knee high with a million goat paths going every where. I set off towards the fenceline I had been going towards but I never found a marked gate. I did find a truck path and followed it for a while before concluding it wouldn't take me anywhere worth going. I was in a area between my maps and couldn't figure out where I needed to be so after an hour of bushwhacking I gave up and headed back to Bowes.
I just went out to dinner since it is now raining and I didn't want to sit outside and cook. The food was far but filing and this inn is warm and dry. It is only 8:30 and the sky will not be dark for an hour but lacking option I think I am going to climb into bed now and try to get some sleep and stay dry. Tomorrow is straight forward cross country hiking over a rather high pass (for the area) and my body can use the sleep.
posted by a.lost.boy | 8:02 AM
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