MICHELE BIANCO CERAMICS

After torrential rain all the previous day and overnight, I was slightly nervous about what was in store for a day of exposed walking along Hadrian’s Wall and the Pennine Way but I woke to a perfect October morning - cloudless blue skies and not a whisper of wind. My route headed due north out of Haltwhistle to join the Hadrian’s Wall Walk in an easterly direction.

The Northumbrian landscape spread out below me in every direction – a series of gently undulating curves with a line of jutting crests along the whin sill stretching east and west along the route of the wall. 

The low sun cast strong shadows over the ridges heightening the impression of a landscape sculpted by the elements. Swaying moor grasses softened and blurred the edges with their faded ochres and russets and shimmering loughs nestled beneath the ridges and dotted the dips in the land, reflecting the wide blue sky. 

After following the undulations of the wall east for several hours, my route turned to the north to join the Pennine Way. Leaving the steep escarpments of the sill behind, the hills opened out and became broad swathes of rushes and sedges, delineated by drystone walls. 

The route passed through forestry plantations - welcome shade from the warm Autumn sun with the strong scent of pines - and continued north, rising and falling with the sweeps of the Northumbrian hills to the village of Bellingham on the North Tyne.A climb over the moor out of Bellingham took me to join the course of the river Rede, heading upstream in a north easterly direction. The river twists and turns in gentle arcs between lush fields populated by Cheviot sheep and fierce looking English Longhorn and Galloway cattle with the land rising to moorland on either side. 

Shortly after leaving the Rede valley my route crossed the ridge to drop down into the peaceful village of Elsdon with its wide, irregular green surrounded by stone cottages. Then a long climb out of the village to the moor top, marked by a red flag flying, warning that I was on the edge of the Otterburn Ranges. The red flag resulted in a slight deviation from my planned route to avoid the “Danger Zone” - a wise choice give the sporadic sound of machine gun fire and explosions that punctuated the afternoon and made Flora very nervous! 

With the sounds of warfare fading into the distance, I followed the peaceful valley of the Grasslees Burn down to join the River Coquet at Hepple with its rounded hills and plantations of birches and the junipers used to flavour the (very good!) gin made there. My route then rose slightly to the south side of the Coquet to follow the course of the river eastwards towards Rothbury with wonderful views of the flooded valley and braided river glistening in the afternoon sunshine. 

I woke the next day to another perfect, quiet Autumn morning and continued down the River Coquet through native woodlands and dense undergrowth thick with heavy dew. Rising and falling with the spurs of land shaped by the river, my route passed through farmland and woodland along St Oswald’s Way. 

I caught glimpses of Brinkburn Priory nestled in its loop of the river through the trees from the opposite bank before a lunch stop in the sun at the Angler’s Arms in Weldon. Then onwards through mature woodland and pasture, passing through the picturesque village of Felton to eventually arrive at Acklington station.