Author Topic: Pennine Journey  (Read 3878 times)

sussamb

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #15 on: 20:33:30, 16/06/17 »
Weather looking good for it although maybe a tad too warm  O0
Where there's a will ...

gunwharfman

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #16 on: 12:02:05, 22/06/17 »
I started my hike but after a few days, due to an unforeseen difficulty, I had to return home in a hurry. Problem now solved, so I'm catching the train to Skipton tomorrow, make my way to Buckden by bus (if I'm lucky to get there in time) and then resume my hike! Is anybody already on the circuit?

Murphy

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #17 on: 20:57:24, 22/06/17 »
Ill be at Horton tomorrow and Buckden on Saturday night.

gunwharfman

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #18 on: 11:58:27, 04/07/17 »
Nearly finished and on a break. After two days I had to go back home but a few days later came back to where I finished. The walk for me proved to be a bit of a slog, I enjoyed much of it but not all. Unfortunately I wasn't blessed with particularly good weather. From Buckden to Hexham I walked quite long distances per day across moors in windy and cold weather. When I arrived in Hexham I camped the night on the race course site. Alright perhaps on a race day when the weather is reasonable but for me it just proved to be a bleak overnighter. I also had my first problem, I camped in my Zephryros One tent, it has a single hoop and I managed to snap it! Luckily a fellow camper lent me a 3" piece of tubing which I taped over the break with some insulating tape. I got me through the night and then gave it back to him.

I spent the next morning wandering around Hexham looking for something similar. Took me a while but finally managed to bodge and secure it with some gaffer tape. When I thought about how it happened I realised that it was my own fault! My tent had been wet for a couple of days and the material tube that the pole passes though was also wet on the inside. When dry the pole and the tube material slide easily over each other but when wet the material and the pole can act like a brake, sliding is then minimal or not at all. I fitted one end of the pole one side of the tent but then failed to ensure that the whole length of the pole and the outer material were smoothed out so that a proper 'U' shape could be formed. As I tensioned the pole to secure it to the door side of the tent it just snapped!

I eventually got to a very nice camp site just south of Haltwhistle and was told that if I walk across a field, along a short stretch of road the walk onto the old railway line foot path (about 1mile and a bit) I would come to The Wallace Arms. I did, they sold good beer, it was a nice pub but they do not cook food. They are quite happy for customers to phone for a Haltwhistle take away and eat it in the bar but I decided just to make do with a couple of packets of crisps. As I walked back to my tent it started to rain in earnest.

It was still raining hard the next morning and I had to pack my rucksack from within my tent. What a chore, but I did it! I then walked to Alston on the flat railway track. It rained all day and I finally pitched my tent on the local mobile home site only a few yards from the pub I visited. The site was the worst I have been on, ever! The grass was OK, it hadn't been cut for a long time so was like a soft mattress for sleeping and the price was OK, £5. To get into the site you have to walk through a car breakers yard, what a tip! The shower block was underground, it worked fine but really needs an uplift.

The next morning it was still raining so had to pack my rucksack again in my tent. I'm older now and not so agile so I did a lot of grunting, sharp intakes of breath and cursing! I then walked up to Gregs Hut in thick wet mist and rain then down the other side to Dufton. Horrible day!

A very nice site at Dufton and a good pub, the food was delicious. It had stopped raining by the morning so I strolled off to Appleby in bright hot sunshine, the first really hot weather I had experienced since I started the hike. It didn't last, by the afternoon it was on and off rain again. I then moved onto Kirkby Stephen, not my favourite place I must admit. Looked a bit run down, could'nt find a meal that I fancied so went for an Indian!

I'm now a bit exhausted, I don't think I am properly dry yet and the bottoms of my feet hurt. No blisters though. If I was to be asked to choose between hiking the Pennine Way or the Pennine Journey I would advise that the Pennine Way would be my first choice.

sussamb

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #19 on: 12:16:39, 04/07/17 »
Doesn't look like the weather would have been kind on either the Way or the Journey in June.  Sorry to hear of your issues but apart from the rain and kit issues would you recommend the route itself? 


Thankfully May weather for my PW was pretty good, no help to you though  ;)
Where there's a will ...

gunwharfman

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #20 on: 13:11:18, 04/07/17 »
I would say its worth doing and it has a lot to commend it, anti or clockwise, its just a matter of personal choice I think. I saw very few people en route which meant, from my experience, it was a rather lonelier than the Pennine Way and at times I had to backtrack because I had lost my way. Usually caused by me daydreaming as I strolled along. Actually I was surprised to see so few people walking, even on the sections where the Pennine Journey and the Pennine Way combine? In the lower lying areas navigation was sometimes a little tricky, i had to cross a myriad of fields, stiles and indistinct foothpaths overgrown by long grass, plus the odd field of cattle to get around or through. It may be my imagination but I seemed to have walked a lot on moors, more so than I remember on the Pennine Way, but I could be wrong? The other problem that I came across were pubs that were closed either on a Monday or Tuesday. There was not that much wood/forest walking to be done and the hike for some of its route was really wet, because of long wet grass.

I definitely needed my gaiters but after a while water seeped into my boots anyway, via the boot top. In the end I found I could stay drier for longer by wearing my gaiters next to my skin and pulling my trousers over them. I have no idea why I've never practiced this before, but I'm now convinced its a better option than wearing the gaiters on the outside of ones trousers.

One night I camped in Muker, or is it Mukar? The local pub was great, the food was noticeably cheaper than other pubs on the route, but the beer and the food was just as good. Some customers were impressed that the wine was only between £12-£15 a bottle, here in Portsmouth it would cost £20 a bottle and more! At dawn just after 4.30 a.m. some nutter was driving up and down the road aside the camp site in a sports car I think, (the exhaust rasping noise was so, so loud) and was constantly tooting his (or her) musical car horn for all it was worth! If the campers around me had caught him (or her) we would have willingly twisted his (or her) neck and kicked the car to pieces as well! So irritating!

Murphy

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Re: Pennine Journey
« Reply #21 on: 16:43:46, 04/07/17 »
Gunwharfman,


I am a couple of days behind you........having done this walk on two occasions previously  I was able to work out a good stop off plan taking into account some of the better campsites on the way.  I only wish I had let you see my schedule in advance of you setting off...I would without doubt have told you to avoid the site at Alston -it's horrendous.  There's a much better place on a farmer's lawn at Slaggyford with a really good pub about 200 yards away or alternatively the YHA in Alston.  Camping at Hexham - yes I experienced that once so now we camp at Slaley after Blanchland, and then at Fallowfields Dene which is right on the path after Hexham.


The pub at Muker, The Farmers Arms is one we have frequented regularly and presumably you would have camped at Usher Gap here.  Not sure if you've reached The Moorcock yet, but there is a nice little campsite by the waterfall at the rear of The Moorcock.   


I think the PJ is more challenging in parts than the PW in that it crosses from Dale into Dale so up and over on several occasions and I would certainly say the PJ is worth doing, although for now I think for me 3 times is sufficient........and yes, the weather hasn't been kind to us but at least we may finish in dry mode!  Enjoy the rest... 




 
 

 

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