LEJOG Day 41 – Haggs Bank to Allendale12.35 miles. Cumulative 733.42

Another campsite all to ourselves last night, no campers cubby hole this time, but a very nice heated shower block attached to the on site bunkhouse.

There was a lot of heavy rain overnight, but once again we were lucky and had a dry day for walking although still very windy.

Haggs Bank was formerly a lead mine and the entrance to the mine shaft was at the end of the bunkhouse. The bunkhouse was used by the miners as a smithy and for overnight lodgings.

We decided to change our route again today as our planned route had a lot of road walking and a little research on the Isaac Tea Trail told us it was a circular route starting in Allendale, our destination for the day. The 58km trail was inspired by itinerant tea seller Isaac Holden, who was a familiar figure in the area in Victorian times.

Steve’s main motivation for changing the route was not linked to easy navigation or less road walking but because he assumed a Tea Trail would pass lots of tea (and cake) shops, he was disappointed as there were none en route.

The route climbed out of Haggs Bank and after about an hour we entered Northumberland, county number eleven, through a stone wall, this time both counties had marked the boarder. We crossed moorland to the East Allen Dale which we followed all the way to Allendale.

A short day, so we had finished walking by 1300hrs and booked into The Kings Head. Steve finally found a tea shop next door to the inn.

The boot saga continues as Steve’s third pair of boots are already falling apart, fortunately the local shop had some Evostick which we hope will last until we reach a boot shop, probably next week in Edinburgh. He may need some glue to repair the bedroom furniture he has broken used to press down on the drying glue boot repair.