From a book to a source

I was on a mission today, but I did not think it would eventually lead to a river source.

I was determined to get a copy of one of the last of the Booker longlisted books. It was an unexpected choice and, published by a small independent publisher with a small initial print run, it soon sold out. More were printed, but were still hard to get hold of. My original order defaulted and so last night I trawled the internet to see if anyone had a copy. Eventually it appeared that there was copy in Waterstones in Hexham and I could reserve it. I did. 

Today we set off for Hexham, with the intention of stopping off on the way back somewhere on the Roman Wall for a walk. I collected my book, even managing to pay for it with points on my card. Then we had a wander to look at books and I found an interesting one - River Tyne Trail. I bought it and we had a look through. It describes a walk following  the Tyne, from sources to sea. It is a nicely written and produced book, with good maps and is sold in aid of a charity Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care, which has a fleet of vehicles that take Cancer patients back and forth for treatments. 

It covers a lot of places we know, but had never put together and Gordon immediately suggested we go to Deadwater, just past Keilder, and find the source of the North Tyne. So we did just that. Following a footpath uphill from the road, we found the place where the Walk starts, marked with a huge stone obelisk which was lowered by Chinook helicopter in 2013. Close by you are supposed to be able to see the tiny spring that is the source of the river, but we failed to find it. However you can certainly see the path of the stream that usually flows from it.

At this point we were at the England/Scotland border (no one asked us for a pass!) and down below is the route of the old Border Counties Railway. In fact the building that can be seen below in the photo is what was Deadwater Station. This is an area we will be returning to to explore further. 

I was pleased to get my book and find another one.