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Heather Gant's
Pennine Way Diary Day 14 |
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Tuesday 16th May 2006 Day 14 Probably a day we would rather forget. It was our longest day and we knew it was going to be tough but not quite how tough. The day started well - the sun was out as we set off from Garrigill after a super breakfast to join the banks of the South Tees and a four mile walk to Alston. The highest market town in England but Buxton in Derbyshire d isputes this. In Alston we had a pot of tea and ordered sandwiches at the café recommended by the ladies darts team from the pub last night. Oh I forgot to say Pat and Pete came out to wave us on our way this morning. We continued through fields and farmyards to Slaggyford where we had lunch which was hard to enjoy as we knew we had only covered half of the days walk.
The sun was still shining as we started to climb out of the river valley and came across the ruins of Roman Britain as we neared Hadrians Wall. The ground started to become very boggy and we were having to make detours to find firmer ground all this adding to our days mileage. Pete J had a nasty slip and became very muddy, we tried not to laugh too much. As we walked across one of the moorland sections it began to pelt it down with rain and streams that were trickles were now raging torrents. Our feet were soaking and I fell into a stream getting all one side wet through before Peter pulled me out. The last two miles to Greenhead seemed endless as we waded through flooded pastures and had to walk along the busy A69 taking our lives into our hands .We arrived at the Greenhead Hotel at 7.30 pm absolutely knackered but Sandra the landlady sorted us out and after a hot bath and a bar meal we all felt better knowing the tomorrow was a short day.
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