High Force

I didn’t sleep well.  Probably because the bed was too soft and the room was too hot, not to mention that I probably ate too much last night.  When I eventually got up it was a lovely bright and sunny day.   We had breakfast and then got ourselves ready for a  day’s walking, as TT had a plan.  It was warm when we left the hotel, there was no cold wind.  A perfect day for walking.  We picked up some provisions from the co-op, then headed down to, and over, the River Tees, where we joined the Pennine Way.   The walk was lovely, following the route of the river up the valley, beside wild flower meadows, and with views across and up the valley.  The route takes in the two fabulous waterfalls of Low Force and High Force.  We walked to just past High Force, where we stopped and  had our picnic.  Although we  hadn’t really noticed the ascent we noticed that the countryside and vegetation had changed from the lower down the valley, though there were still lots of different wild flowers by the path.  We then re-traced our steps to Low Force where we crossed the river and walked through more wild flower meadows to the Bowlees Visitor centres, where we rehydrated with very welcome  tea and cold drinks, before continuing on our way. 
 
We walked back through more flower meadows and followed the river downstream, before ascending up the side of the valley to a quiet road, which took us back to Middleton in Teesdale  it was such a lovely walk, with lots to look at and enjoy, and  on such a sunny and warm day – we couldn’t have asked for better conditions.  When we got back, we sat outside our hotel and enjoyed a couple of cold drinks in the sunshine.
 
Later we had dinner – which wasn’t as filling as last night, and then had a quick walk around the village before returning to the hotel.
 
This is High Force, where the water drops 21m.  The extras are Low Force , a wild flower meadow, and a view up the valley.  The meadows were very interesting as and they all had slightly different combinations of flowers in them, including these violets (extra) in one small area.