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Tuesday, 1 June 2021

Day 17 Kielder to Alston

A nice easy day today, but it still seemed to take ages.

Woke up early, but not before the midges unfortunately. The first leg was the cycle path that ambles around Kielder Water, to a breakfast stop at Tower Knowle.

Next it was up into the forest on good forestry tracks, and not too much climbing. It's good to see so much tree planting going on, including native broadleaf species. These guys look like they can plant trees PDQ!

I went past the very respectable "Green" bothy, that has three rooms including two fires and sleeping platforms.

I eventually left the forests behind and took a long unsurfaced road towards Hadrian's Wall, which follows the obvious geology around here.

A quick ice cream stop in Haltwhistle (centre of Britain apparently) then the thankfully flat and well surfaced ex-railway towards Alston following the Tyne upstream.

Somewhere around Slaggyford I must have lost concentration because I left the railway and ended up on national cycle route 68 instead. Up it went, up and up the valley side for no reason at all before plunging back down. Who designs these terrible routes?

Finally make Alston, a very slopey little town, and set up in the little caravan site by the river, for a much needed wash.

Tomorrow is a big challenge as I need to cross the wilds of the North York Moors, over Alston Moor, Milburn Fore and Dufton Fell. These remote tracks reach 3000' in places!

Miles today: 45. Total so far: 613.

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