After the completion of the Pennine Way, it was time to head back to Leeds for a few days recovery prior to doing some sightseeing. Kirk Yetholm is a bit of an awkward place to get back from, much worse than Edale which is close to major train lines. In our case, we had to get a taxi from Kirk Yetholm to a town called Berwick-Upon-Tweed. We had a very talkative and chatty taxi driver called Mark who kept us entertained the whole way, not least from trying to decipher his accent. After a 30 minute or so taxi ride, we arrived in Berwick-Upon-Tweed and we were able to catch the southward train from Edinburgh.

The train southwards went through through some beautiful spots through the Northumberland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It was hard to capture this from the train, but it is definitely an area which would be worth returning to in the future. It felt strange to suddenly be racing through the countryside at 125mph after spending so many days travelling slowly through the landscape.

We soon arrived at Newcastle and it was then time to be picked up by my sister and drive back to Leeds. We decided to break up the journey a little and stopped off in Durham, a University and Cathedral town in the north of England south of Newcastle. Durham was a beautiful town and it was nice to walk through the streets, even though walking anywhere after our hike meant sore feet.

As we only had limited time, we decided to visit Durham Cathedral, which is one of the only original Norman cathedrals left in Britain. The Cathedral was spectacular inside and contains the tombs of Bede and St Cuthbert. It was amazing to think that these were around 1,500 years old. The Cathedral itself was built from 1093 onwards and is a World Heritage Site. The library onsite also contains a copy of the Magna Carta.

From Durham, it was roughly a 90 minute drive back to Leeds. We stopped off in a town called Wetherby for some traditional fish and chips. After hiking for three weeks and pretty much eating anything we saw, we still had a decent appetite and ordered a huge meal from the menu. As good an idea as this seemed at the time, it definitely did not feel like a good idea afterwards and we practically waddled out of the restaurant afterwards.

Finally, after 16 days hiking on the Pennine Way, we were back where we started in Leeds. It was amazing to think how far we’d come from the start of the walk, not least by the amount of time it had taken us to get back to Leeds.

Over the next week or so, we’ll be doing some sightseeing throughout Yorkshire initially and then the south of England. We’ll be flying back from Heathrow a little over a week from now so will definitely be packing a lot in before we leave.