Long Crag

I had some stressful nightmares. (In one I was staying in Linda’s house but not like it really is. I was walking through numerous occupied bedrooms to find mine. Everywhere had so much clutter it was hard to walk through. One was occupied by some boys, one of whom was crying. The next had 5 men of different ethnicities hunched up on a high platform. They said they were asylum seekers and she was sheltering them. I realised I’d never find my way back to the loo in the night but couldn’t find my phone - yet again! - to get Mr C to fetch me and Colin didn’t know his number. I woke in a sweat.) I was obviously worrying I’d not get Linda and Colin to their train for London in time. A 30 mile round trip drive. Of course it was fine. Linda was very stressed about going.

We had a quick lunch and drive about 5 miles to the start of a walk to the Long Crag trig point. It was through a bit of Thrunton Woods which had been closed since Arwen as the storm carnage needed to be cleared. It was a beautiful sunny walk, not too steep, 5 miles return. Some was on a red forestry track, then a boggy path up through the forest, then boggy open moorland with an eroded rocky path. The views were tremendous. I got Mr C to pose on the rock near the trig point. The long purple hill in the distance is Cheviot, 2614 ft. Beyond it is Scotland. Had it been in Scotland it would have been a Corbett, Scottish mountains between 2500 and 3000 ft. I first climbed it aged 10 with my parents and dog.

The electricity has just gone off. It’s dark so I’ll need to find our gas light. And my phone is out of charge. Typical.