Day 86 – Burgh by Sands to Rockcliffe

From Burgh to the Kielder Forest via Sean’s bridge is about 40 miles. We’ll need a full day to walk through the forest, so John has been investigating the possibility of fording the Eden before reaching the bridge because the resultant saving of 8 miles would give us a chance of reaching Kielder at the end of our walk tomorrow. Given the narrow window of lunchtime low tide on the Eden, the chances of this proving to be practicable are slim, but they are reduced to non-existent by the late arrival at Birmingham of John’s morning train from Cheltenham. Although the train from Euston to Carlisle (with Ben and Gary on board) is still at the adjacent platform, its doors have been locked by the time John has disembarked and it disappears northwards leaving John – and about a dozen others who had unreasonably supposed that there was still a concept of “connecting trains” – fuming at New Street. Net result is that Ben and Gary arrive at Carlisle shortly after 11 o’clock and wait an hour – mainly spent breakfasting in the buffet – for John to arrive on the next train from Birmingham. However, a Colin from the station gets us to Burgh in about 20 minutes (with arrangements being made for him to pick us up tomorrow afternoon), and we’re eventually under way just before 12:30. It’s a short walk from Burgh to the Eden via the Edward I monument (marking the spot where the king died whilst encamped on his way to “hammer the Scots” in 1307) so it isn’t too long before we know for certain that the river level is now too high for fording. Indeed, it soon transpires that fording probably wouldn’t have been possible at any time because, after another mile or so and before the point where we would have tried to cross, the riverside path becomes impassable and we have to retrace our steps to join a lane going inland towards Beaumont. Rather irritatingly – particularly for John who has only just got over his annoyance with Virgin Trains and Network Rail – this means that our logging stop at the end of 2 hours takes place only a few hundred yards from where we were at the end of hour 1. The remainder of the route along the south side of the Eden is through a series of fields interspersed with country lanes and a short section of the Hadrian’s Wall Path and, by the time we’ve crossed Sean’s bridge and turned back to the north west, it’s approaching 4:00pm. The chances of us reaching the Metal Bridge (and its eponymous pub) on the Carlisle side of the River Esk at a reasonable hour are rapidly diminishing, so the decision is made to “ease off” and finish today at Rockcliffe which, conveniently, also has a pub, the non-eponymous Crown and Thistle. We’ll still have completed almost 15 miles, so similar mileages tomorrow and on the first day of our next trip will resolve the outstanding Kielder Forest issue – i.e. we’ll go through the forest on day 2 of the next trip. Sorted. In the meantime the walk to Rockcliffe is, for the most part, along the raised bank of the Eden and, with the exception of one or two overgrown fields and a diversion down to the side of the river to bypass some cattle (to include a proprietorial looking bull) the conditions underfoot are pretty easy. During the last hour or so, we hear regular rumbles of thunder, but it seems to be circling us and the heavy rain which we hear later has fallen in the area holds off until we’ve reached the Crown and Thistle. Clearly, the decision to stop here was the correct one. Earlier in the day John announced that, whilst he is no longer on the antibiotics which he was taking on the last trip, he has been investigating the benefits of a non-alcohol diet by remaining off the booze. Any such benefits must have proved to be marginal at best, or easy to ignore, because after one alcohol free lager (a contradiction in terms?) he rejoins the cider team for his second drink. A cab has been ordered to take us to our overnight stop, the Hunters Lodge in Gretna, and a sign by the road over the Esk warns of heavy rain tomorrow. Is our luck on the meteorological front about to run out? Our driver can’t take us back to Rockcliffe in the morning but he provides phone numbers of alternative Colins. Hunters Lodge is not exactly rammed but has comfortable rooms (albeit with slightly unsatisfactory shower pressure for some) and a satisfying supper during which it transpires that John’s earlier abandoning of his teetotal experiment was not a temporary measure.