With the best will in the world it’s hard to plan walks so that they don’t clash with local events such as bike rides, fun runs and summer fetes. When your walk starts at a teeny tiny village, like Holwick, that task is even harder.

We clashed with the Cronkley Fell Race which made parking in this long thin, steeply sloping village harder than it should have been. Nonetheless we managed.

The walk continued up the hill until we ran out of houses and struck out on footpaths. It was a good day for walking – not wet, not windy, not too hot. High Force was tumbling over it’s precipitous drop not far from us but we veered off in another direction onto the moorland tops.

The walking underfoot was a bit tricky – all marshy, tussocky grass – and the way markers few and far between. However, these were long summer days and we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, after a couple of miles the uneven ground took its toll and one of our party had to turn back with knee trouble and was kindly escorted by a passing fellow rambler. Such nice folks these walkers.

We had lunch on the side of a low hill overlooking Middleton-in-Teesdale which nestles in the North Pennines Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. And it was.

The final leg of the walk brought us gradually down from the wind blown moor tops to gentler landscape by the River Tees. It was here that gentle rain began to fall and accompanied us back to our cars in a now deserted Holwick village.