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Thursday 31st May 2012 Middleton-in-Teesdale to Langdon Beck Day 12 and the first rain of the trip - light rain but enough to get you wet. My shell jacket is made of 'eVent' material which is generally good stuff but it is at least four years old and doesn't seem as effective at keeping me dry any more; it doesn't leak but the sweat builds up more than it used to.
This stretch of the Way is easy walking, following the course of the River Tees upriver past waterfalls with names such as Low Force and High Force. The valley has a sprinkling of trees as a welcome change from the slightly monotonous moor and sheep country of the last few days. Lots of lapwings about, also redshank and swallows. The rocks were very slippery when wet and I fell once, no serious damage though. I came across a couple of school parties but no other Wayfarers - it's quite an isolated part of the route. A couple of toads and a frog also crossed my path.
I got to the B&B, a farm at Langdon Beck, fairly early as it was only a nine and a half mile trek. Even though I'd taken things slowly it was only 13.30 and there was no-one at home on the farm. The farm itself was of the 'working farm' variety, ie the approach road and farmyard were plastered with shit from all kinds of creatures and the usual aggressive geese came to hiss at me and threaten me although they backed off quickly when I showed them the sole of my boot.
I sat and waited for a while, the rain passing by now and things drying out a bit. At 14.00 I decided to walk to the pub marked on the map and get a cup of tea. I left the sac in an outbuilding, cracking my head on the low beams as I did so, and walked about a mile to the Langdon Beck Hotel, a nice enough pub with an open fire and entries in the Good Beer Guide, so they said. After tea and a cake I walked back and sat on a stone for five minutes before the family finally turned up. They seemed friendly enough.
In the evening I had to put my boots back on for the walk to the pub as I didn't want to get my relatively clean trainers mired with the sort of muck which was spread all over the farmyard. I strolled down to the pub and had a fair enough meal there - aubergine, salad and chips. Tonight I was a bit preoccupied with the thought of Trisha's scan results which were due tomorrow. Back at the farm I went to bed but was awoken at twenty past midnight by the sound of someone walking past my door - it was the sound of a woman in tears. A few minutes later she returned, still audibly upset. All a bit unsettling. The farm is quite isolated with no immediate neighbours and when a small number of people live and work together in those conditions I expect tensions can build up. As far as I could make out there was just the farmer, his missus and a teenaged son there, although there was also a labourer around at one point - don't know if he lived there though, don't think so. The crying had created a slightly depressing atmosphere and I felt I'd be glad to leave and be on my way. Distance: 9.5 miles Average speed: 2.4 mph Total ascent: 2457 feet Total Distance: 159.84 miles | |||||||
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