22 miles/35 km

Total miles: 161 miles/258 km

Yesterday was a public holiday in the UK with the first of three days of celebrations for the platinum jubilee. That also made for an interesting night for anyone looking for a quiet night. I was staying at the local hotel and was kept awake by the singing and yahoo’ing until 2.30 AM. Ben was staying at the local campground and had a litany of tales to tell starting with being greeted by a drunk campground manager whilst checking in! His day finished with being kept awake by a bunch of hairy bikers snoring the night away a short distance away from his tent.

So, it was in a somewhat bleary eyed state that we stumbled onto the trail for our biggest day of the Pennine Way, a total of 35km to Dufton. This is the first of two big days we have coming up with the second being tomorrow. Fortunately, today is one of the highlights of the Pennine Way.

With a short walk out of Middleton, we turned right and began our walk along the River Tees. Rain was forecast today but, from the look of the clouds, we were hopeful we would avoid it. It was very pleasant walking through the meadows as we departed Middleton.

The trail began a gentle climb up to one of three waterfalls today with the first being Low Force. The trail was full of day walkers out enjoying the scenery with the families cheerfully saying hello as we passed each other. The waterfall made a great place for a stop to admire the views and listen to the sounds of the rushing water as we put our feet up.

After Low Force, the path continued on its way upstream through more meadows. The meadows were full of wildflowers including seas of buttercups and cow parsley bordered by sycamore trees.

After a few kilometres of this, we reached the second of the waterfalls, this one called High Force. Here the River Tees takes a running, joyful leap off a 70-foot cliff crashing its way down into the gorge below. Wainwright called this ‘the greatest waterfall in the country’ which is high praise indeed.

After High Force, the day walkers suddenly dropped away and the trail changed in character gradually becoming more and more remote. The going also became much harder and the dainty little path through the meadows became a scramble through large boulder fields which made for slow, tiring walking. Fortunately, it wasn’t constant and was interspersed here and there with nice river walking along the Upper Tees and some beautiful wildflowers.

After a period of slipping, sliding and falling over boulders in an undignified manner we eventually reached the final waterfall for the day, the imaginatively named Cauldron Snout. This is very different in character from the other waterfalls and comes crashing down through a narrow cleft in Whin Sill with a thundering roar.

After a difficult, scary but short scramble up the rocks along the side of Cauldron Snout, the trail progressed into an easier path as we moved from County Durham into Cumbria. The next few kilometres became a bit of a slog and alternated between being easy to follow and a boggy, peaty quagmire.

As we walked, I could hear an odd little squeak squeak behind me. Looking back, I could see this was a cyclist who had pushed his bike all the way up here at great personal effort. The squeaks were his poorly maintained brakes on his rusty old bike which had clearly seen better days. He clearly liked a chat, and was keen to regale anyone who would listen with stories of his past adventures. ‘Hmm..’, I thought, ‘this could take a while…’ so I decided to push on and make my escape. After 5 minutes or so, I could still hear the squeak squeak behind me so redoubled my efforts and pushed on at a furious pace.

At the end of all these efforts, we had the famous High Cup Nick to look forward to. This is one of the highlights of the Way for many.

Unfortunately, on the way, I could hear a squeak squeak behind me and the cyclist appeared on my shoulder whispering ‘One of the highlights of the Way this is…’. I let him push on ahead of me with the excuse of tying my laces and finally I was free to a blissful silence.

Finally, after this steely game of cat and mouse against a two wheeled opponent, it was time to focus on High Cup Nick. On the approach we couldn’t see much other than a small cleft in the rocks but this indicated that something big was lying just ahead.

The view then opened up spectacularly to show us the full view High Cup Nick. This is a stunning symmetrical U-shaped valley of sheer whinstone cliffs and dolerite crags which was glacially formed in the last ice age. It is a 700 ft drop to the valley floor below.

It was extremely windy up there so we took care to stay well clear of the drop as we took in the views. The Pennine Way has been going due west today so we have been walking directly towards the Lake District. Before us, we could see the Vale of Eden and onwards to the easternmost fells.

From High Cup Nick, we began a long and steep descent down to the village of Dufton. The views of the Vale of Eden and its rolling fields opened up and we could see further into the Lake District fells. In the distance, we could just see Blencathra and, behind it, Skiddaw which is the sixth highest in England.

As we descended, we could see the tiny village of Dufton below us. Eventually, with sore feet, we reached the village. After getting the accommodation organised, it was time to head to the pub for a well deserved drink and dinner listening out carefully for any squeak squeaks along the way.

Tomorrow we have one more big day ahead of us and then it is time for a much needed rest day in Alston.