A little red Volkswagen at a watery green ford
I’ve a feeling that if tomorrow is as busy as today, we’ll be so tired by the time we head home on Thursday. Although not leaving our holiday cottage terribly early, we did cram an awful lot into the day.
It’s been a very enjoyable day, though. First stop was High Force, billed as ‘one of the most impressive waterfalls in England.’ Situated in a gorge at Middleton-In-Teesdale, the River Tees flows over the top, and then plunges down the gorge face, creating an impressive torrent of water. Constantly eroding the Whin Sill rock underneath it, the river is always retreating upstream, however slow.
High Force
We thought the entry fee of £1.00 paltry, for the sounds, and sensations we witnessed. Meandering our way down the winding path to this spectacle of nature, we clambered on the large blocks of rocks, lining the bottom of the pool. It really was like something from a fairy tale, the plunging torrent of water rushing down the gorge face at a frightening speed. We set up the tripod and captured some slow shutter speed pictures, before retreating to the top of the gorge to see the river slowly approach.
Water had featured strongly on our journey there, too, with a fjord at Stanhope making the road through impassable, but it was nothing that a quick detour couldn’t solve. We then traced the river back to Cow Green Reservoir, a few miles west, and after parking the car in a remote car park by the huge manmade expanse of water, we walked to another fabled river spot: Cauldron Snout.
Cauldron Snout and the Cow Green Reservoir dam
Almost as impressive, this smaller group of waterfalls run along the Pennine Way, but the rocks were far too slippery and steep for us to walk very far along it today. Last night’s torrential rain made the legendary pathway dangerous, although undoubtedly today was the best day to see both watery forces of nature, as the river was fuller and faster, pushing and weaving its way through the beautiful, undulating landscape.
Hadrian’s Wall Path
After lunch in pretty Alston, we set off to see another spectacle, manmade this time. Hadrian’s Wall spans 73 miles across the width of the UK, and is a lasting monument to the Roman Empire. Many forts, mile castles, museums, and turrets litter its winding path. Stopping at Housesteads Fort, the most complete example of a Roman fort, we walked a small part of the 2,000 year-old wall, amazed at its completeness, and longevity.
Hadrian’s Wall
Looking for all the world like the spines on the back of a sleeping green dinosaur, it twisted and turned into the distance, and as we came to the gate which marked the end of our particular path, we were happy that we’d seen the stone fortification which was designed to protect the Romans from invaders across the border, all those years ago. It might be the lesser of the two much-vaunted walls, but it was impressive all the same.