Pennine Way Day 11 - Dufton to Alston

After saying our goodbye's to Paul who kindly dropped us back off at the Stag Inn before heading for home and then the golf course, we re-commenced our Pennine Way walk northwards out of Dufton.

Dufton Pike to our right.

Brownber Hill up ahead as we walk alongside Great Rundale Beck.

Looking back to Dufton Pike

It was here that we made our first navigational mistake of this trip as we followed the slightly more 'visible' path up the flank of High Scald Fell and missed the Pennine Way sign which as you can see wasn't doing it's job. Fortunately a kind chap saw us heading up and shouted us back down to check if we were doing the PW ? He obviously knew of this pitfall as he was a regular walker in this area. It wouldn't have cost us much in reality, as we would have soon realised and corrected our error, but as we are doing 4000ft of ascent today, a little extra saved was much appreciated.

Looking back down by the route of Swindale Beck.

Looking back as we tackle the long climb up Green Fell.

After 2 hours of mostly constant uphill we finally reach the summit of Knock Old Man.

Leaving the summit of Knock Old Man we can see the Radar Station on Great Dun Fell becoming more clearer as we walk over the Pennine slabs.

Looks like the mast of a sailing ship moored up in a harbour - It's not actually.

Didn't take any photos at the top of Great Dun Fell as at the time we weren't sure whether the radio station was a military building or not. But we could have merrily snapped away, as it isn't. But here's one of Little Dun Fell which at 842m high is only 6m shorter in height. The unmistakable flat plateaux of Cross Fell can now be seen in the distance as our climbing may soon be at an end. Over 8 miles of ascent takes a bit out of the legs - but that was the good part of the day.

Cross Fell summit trig point (893m). Standing on the top of the Pennines.

A few yards away from the trig point was the well constructed wind shelter. It was very windy up here, but Little Dun Fell was probably the worst spot. We considered having lunch here but decided to press on to Greg's Hut in the hope that we would get a couple of Steak Bakes and a Latte - but it's probably just a Bothy.

Yep - Greg's Hut, with no Vegan Sausage Rolls in sight. Good enough for us though as we were well sheltered from the wind and enjoyed a brief rest in the warming sun.

The next few hours were turgid as we followed the endless Yellow Brick Road to Garrigill. What a monotonous stretch that was. We kicked on a good pace and got it over with as quick as we could, but how lovely was it to finally reach a soft grassy path at the end of this hard downhill track.

A welcome sight - Garrigill.

River South Tyne

This was surreal, we were followed across this field by a flock of sheep - noisy ones too. How friendly these were, I've never experienced that much popularity in my entire walking career.

On the look out for elves as we risk a short-cut through Middle Earth's Fangorn Forest.

Arriving in Alston where we will soon meet up with Ste the next victim for one of our long distance walks the next day - but for now it's time for the three of us to see what Alston has to offer in the Real Ale department.