Wonderful walk with Ailie

After all the foul weather Ailie and I decided to head for the tops today and managed an 8 mile walk. It was so good to get out.

She picked me up and we drove to the car park at Tosson Peel Tower and headed up through the woods in a westerly direction on a forest path. It got quite steep but then we left the forest (and flies) behind and headed along a wet, rough, narrow, heathery track towards Tosson Hill (a couple of miles from Tosson) where I bagged another trig point. We had a coffee then ploughed on, the track appearing and disappearing. The heather on either side at some points was way past our knees. We reached another top and decended with some difficulty as we couldn’t see the track for the heather, eventually, after a sustaining sandwich, reaching a wide track used by shooters. From there I contacted Mr C who had agreed to pick us up at Hepple Whiteside in an hour. The track was now wide and easy. We stopped to look at the ponies then continued on to the roadend. Hepple gin, available in Fenwicks, is made in the area. We made it to the meeting place before Mr C. He drove us back to Ailie’s car.

We’d ascended over 1000 ft. Now I’m having a coffee and am going to read my book.

It is #3 daughter’s 13th wedding anniversary and they are all en route to the 42 degrees in Granada where they’ve borrowed a friend’s flat for a week.