Hills, hills and more hills

Well, here I am in hill country...Co Durham, in the north east of England...land of my birth, so beautiful, wild and green. I had never realized till this week when I came back to do some hill training just how hilly it is. I am staying with my sister Carole and her partner, Alan. It is so remote here...so country, sheep, cows, farm yards, tractors, stone walls and horses and the so healthy, invigorating smell of the barn yards as you pass by. There's hen eggs and duck eggs for sale up the road and an abattoir of sorts over the hill two fields up. There's a random peacock that struts around the field next door accompanied on some mornings by fat pheasants. My sister reckons the peacock got lost somehow but nor sure from where. A quaint little village with a pub and no shops. A mobile library and post office visit the village once a week.

I walked for two days with full back-pack et al. First day through Hamsterley Pine Forest managed by the Forestry Commission. A beautiful walk along by the river and one fairly long exacting hill.

Am amazed at just how much water there is here. Australia be very jealous. The river here is so free and fast flowing even with warning signs telling how deep it is in places. There are little brooks and water falls tumbling down from the hills that run along the Forest Drive lined with stately pines. It is off-season but already the mountain bike riders are testing out the new bike runs that Alan has created over the past year. Right of way seems to be given to the bikies so walkers look out. Was pleased to see though that only walkers were allowed along by the river. I covered about 12 kms and just to add to my training experience it rained quite well for me and happy to say my Rainbird jacket held up really well....but not only did it rain it also HAILED. So I suppose you could say I walked through rain, hail and shine ha ha! The sun did come out for brief moments.

I packed a lunch which I scoffed down asap as I decided bananas weighed too much. Had a boiled egg and two compressed buns. I was surprised how much I started to chill down after I stopped for a while. Was warm enough while walking but was by now so wet from sweating that as soon as the cold air hit my back I realized how cold it was. A good enough motivation to keep moving.

On day 2 I decided on another route that Carole had showed me earlier. Unfortunately I took a wrong turn and ended up back where I started...needless to say it still covered 8 kms. Having a map is certainly a good policy! Good lesson learned. Returned to base for lunch and over the rest of the day covered about another 9 kms. My goal was to do at least 15kms as that is what I am aiming to do on the Camino each day. More hills on this route and I can say quite emphatically that going up the hills is definitely better than down. Walking poles are now definitely on my must-get list. I was quite stiff by the end of the day but pleased that I had accomplished my goal. I did it, and with killer hills to boot. I had a revelation somewhere along the way that I didn't need to cover the 15 kms all in one hit. Where did I get that idea from? So took my time and had plenty of breaks. Was OK - though I was quite weary by the end of the day. Dont care if I never see another hill. Walking in Cambridge will be a breeze after this.

Tomorrow I will walk a little section of my previous walk and call in for coffee at The Cross Keys pub on the way home. Maybe I will ask for 'cafe con leche' but maybe not!