The first part of our outing was to catch the bus to Cotherstone. Since Weardale Travel now use smaller capacity buses on this route, I limited the walk to 14 members which did mean some members were disappointed not to be on the walk. However, 14 proved to be exactly the right number, as we left Galgate all the seats were taken and two more passengers got on at the Market Cross.
There are several routes from Cotherstone to Barnard Castle, our route was to take the Tees Valley Railway path which we joined right on the edge of Cotherstone. Climbing 30 shallow steps takes you onto the old railway line. Following this path, we crossed over the route of the new water pipe. Work has been completed on this section and in another year, it will probably not be obvious at all.
Where the route of the railway line stops, we joined the footpath heading towards Lartington, this takes you underneath another railway line. One of our members told us he had used the railway as a child to get to school. We then took the footpath towards Pecknall Farm and rather than continuing over the fields as we have previously, we entered Pecknell Woods. The footpath runs parallel to Scur Beck. It is a lovely walk for the initial section, but when our walk leader recced the walk she discovered that the footpath deteriorates and becomes nearly impassable for a group. So she directed us up to the tarmac lane which leads us back to Lartington Lane.
Once past Tees Cottage the lane runs parallel to the Tees and opposite Flatts Wood we observed some children had entered the river from Flatts Wood and were making their way upstream. One of our sharp-eyed walkers spotted her granddaughter in the river and left her in doubt she should get out of the water immediately! ‘No names, no pack drill’
Many thanks to Carole for her thorough recce and for leading the walk.
Liz Colley