I’d been chatting with Wim for several months over email now. We’d kept in touch and discussed a run up North one day near Wim’s neck of the woods. This happens to be Northumberland. I’d never been up that part of England before. Not even close!! We’d settled on a weekend and Wim kindly gave me refuge for the weekend. I just had to get North.
Saturday morning and we headed out to the Northumberland National Park. We’d arranged to meet Ross at Ingram. Parked up and kit on we headed off along with Wim’s trusty best mate Margot (Mags!) the dog. The rough plan was to head into the Cheviot Hills and cover about 20 miles or so for and for me to experience the joys of Northumberland.
Ross led the way with his expert local knowledge as we climbed and covered key peaks like Dunmoor Hill, Hedgehope Hill and The Cheviot. Since chatting to Wim he’s made me aware of the Cheviot Goat, a race each December that I’ll certainly want to experience in the future. The route we took covered some of this race. I can see it’s going to be a tough one, especially in the cold of December!
Over the course of the day we followed a vague plan. Sometimes sticking to the various tracks and other times following Ross ‘off piste’ as we made a beeline directly for the hills.
We ended up covering the 20 miles and ran through a really varied terrain with some spectacular views as we crossed trails, bogs, industrial roads, forests and farmlands.
The next morning, with achy legs and tired eyes Wim took me into Bamburgh and we ran a 5km along the beach and had a little dip of the legs in the icy sea (I didn’t last long!!). Out of the corner of our eye we spotted a porpoise doing its thing. Amazing.
Such a wicked weekend meeting people and sharing experiences and stories in a completely new place to me! Roll on next time!
You can read a slightly more detailed version of the weekend’s adventure here.
Run With Dai 