Day One, Haltwhistle Autumn Walking Festival

There can be only one image for blip today. Here are the walkers just before they climb onto the bus for the first long walk of the festival.

We had a lovely drive to Westgate. From there we walked up a very steep hill onto the moors. Our lovely leader, Al, assured us that "once we were up, we were up", but he lied. There were about 3 more climbs, although none as steep as the first.

It was sunny and clear all morning. The highlight only incident was when Al managed to trap a toggle from his shorts in a zip on his rucksack and could hardly walk. It took his wife and a lot of patience to separate them. He had to strip off too!

After lunch it was cooler and rain came sweeping in. Not too bad, until the heavens opened and the rain came crashing down. We tried to shelter under trees but had to go on after a while.

Kevin sang to a lonesome pine and we joined in the chorus. (See extra.)

We were in Blanchland 6 hours after we started walking which tells you that we walked 12 miles.

A great first day out.