Author: Julie Barnett

Another beautiful day in February took us to Lesbury. We all met at the big tree in Lesbury and welcomed Kath to her first Strolls with Poles walk.

Continue reading “Lesbury – 24th February 2019”

This walk took us to County Durham and theTanfield Railway. The weather was excellent for February.

Continue reading “Tanfield – 23rd February 2019”

This was an unusual walk as we started with a guided tour of the gardens with Peter, a volunteer at Howick Hall Gardens.  Peter was incredibly knowledgeable about the trees within the gardens, explaining how they are labelled, where they come from and who has collected the seeds.  We walked through the sensory garden, provided by the Autism Society and around the blankets of snowdrops.

Continue reading “Howick Hall Gardens – 17th February 2019”

This was our longest walk on the programme so far this year and would take us around Herrington Country Park before heading towards Penshaw Monument and down to walk along the River Wear.

Continue reading “Herrington Country Park and Penshaw Monument – 19th January 2019”

A short teaching session started this shorter walk as we had 3 new walkers, Sue, Pete and Emma joining us.

Continue reading “Hauxley Nature Reserve – 13th January 2019”

The first walk of 2019 saw us visit the town of Newbiggin by the Sea. It was great to welcome everyone back and also Christine’s daughter Stacey, who was with us for her first walk.

Continue reading “Newbiggin by the Sea and River Wansbeck – 6th January 2019”

The weather forecast for this walk looked good, as a small group met at the Warkworth Picnic Area car park.  Following the clocks changing, we moved the start time to 10 am.   Everyone arrived early. Warm up completed, we started down to Warkworth beach and towards Alnmouth, which we could see in the distance. Warkworth beach is around 3 miles long and really beautiful.  Everyone headed off at their own pace, with Martin, Claire and Kirsty striding out in front.  Chris and Anne lagged behind, as they were taking photographs along the way. We came across some rocks which, because the tide was high, were negotiated by going up onto the cliff top.  This path took us alongside an old WW2 pillbox hidden in the cliff side. Dropping down onto the beach again, we reached the mouth of the river Aln, separating us from Alnmouth.  From here, we walked up a small hill to reach St Cuthbert’s Cross.  This location is allegedly where St Cuthbert agreed to become Bishop of Lindisfarne when petitioned by the King.  The view from the top is spectacular, and Chris, who hadn’t seen it before, exclaimed “Wow”. Group photograph taken we then dropped down to the Cycle Path which took us around to Alnmouth.  Claire asked Martin if we were walking along Lovers Walk!  Unfortunately work was being carried out and the route was closed. Once we were in Alnmouth, we headed to The Village Tearooms.  This is one of our regular stops.  We were told there was no space for us.  However, Julie stepped in and spoke to Denise, who found us space and we enjoyed crab sandwiches, hot beef and gravy stotties and cakes with lashings of tea.

Following lunch we retraced our steps along the cycle route, missing out the trip to St Cuthbert’s Cross, and instead crossing the dunes to the beach. By now the weather wasn’t so good.  The blue sky had made way for rain, so the walk back was a lot quicker. Reaching the cars, we did a cool down and everyone said they had thoroughly enjoyed the day. Another great day out with great people.  See you on the next walk. Julie and Martin

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This was a walk that everyone was looking forward to.  A walk to the iconic Sycamore Gap, interestingly most of the group had never been to this part of Hadrian’s Wall despite living in the North East. Continue reading “Sycamore Gap – 8 September 2018”