Day 72 Another short day

Today we were still a bit tired. We hadn’t slept that well (snorers all around kept Graham awake-I didn’t hear them-and rain on the tent at 5am woke me). We knew we only had 8.5 miles to do today so we had booked breakfast at the pub and had a leisurely time reading a book about Tan Hill Inn.

We saw yesterday’s polite seat-giving-up boys and Chris and his friends, but they were all setting off promptly as they were heading for Middleton-in-Teesdale, some seventeen miles away. We were heading for Bowes.

This morning’s route lay across Sleightholme Moor described in my guidebook as “bleak and boggy”. Boggy it certainly was-our feet squelched for the first few miles. we disturbed a grouse, saw some peewits (yes, lapwings) and noted the grouse butts ready for the shooting season

Gradually the scenery changed as we came off the moor and into agricultural land around Bowes. We stopped at a bridge for a late elevenses and arrived about 2.30 at our pub, the Ancient Unicorn.

First things first, lunch. More Spar sandwiches, not the best sandwiches in the world, but adequate. Next I had a bath, did my washing and dried my tent. Graham and I then went for a walk round Bowes to see the castle and the remains of the Roman fort. The stone from the fort was used to build the castle so it was just earthworks. The Roman Road goes through Bowes but today there is a bypass as it is the A66.

Bowes is also the home of the school on which Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nickleby is based and the head whose initials were WS, just like Wackford Squeers, is buried in the churchyard. We walk past the building tomorrow-I’ll take a picture then.

We had a quiet evening, with a good meal at the Ancient Unicorn-we asked the landlady about the name. Apparently it was the Unicorn until Georgian times when it was re-named the George. The original name was restored and at some point in the twentieth century, Ancient was added.

I spent the rest of the evening writing up the blog. Tomorrow we’re off to Middleton-in-Teesdale