I had a good sleep, the room to myself but awoke to the sound of rain, never a good sound. The forecast was for heavy rain during the night and it would stay on until mid afternoon. The route between Alston and Greenhead mainly follows the South Tyne Trail which stretches to Haltwhistle along a disused railway line, the Pennine Way crossing it a couple of times before leaving it near Lambley. I'm pretty sure that if this path had been in existance back when the Pennine Way was created, it would have been part of the Pennine Way today.
I bought a breakfast roll from the Spar before I left Alston and something for lunch and headed off in the rain, this was one of these days where you just wanted to get to the end of the day and get it over with and get dried out, the scenery wasn't going to be very errrr scenic due to the cloud being low over the hills either side of the path and it promissed to be quite a miserable day, the thing keeping me going was the thought of a nice pub meal for my tea at Greenhead Hotel, just accross from the hostel where I'd be staying the night.
I'll be honest with you, I can see no difference between sticking to the Pennine Way or following the South Tyne Trail as they head the same way, criss cross a couple of times and basically run parallel with each other, your views from the Pennine Way will be exactly the same as from the disused railway track and on days like today, your feet will be drier walking along a path rather than plodding through wet fields for the majority of the day. If you take the South Tyne Trail and stay on it after Lambley, it ends at Haltwhistle where you can buy food from the local co-op as there is no shop in Greenhead and your next shop will be in Bellingham.
It had been a morning of heavy blustery showers all morning, with nothing really for shelter and I was quite miserable today with no real scenery to look at as I walked. I remembered what someone had told me a couple of days earlier about Blenkinsopp Common being very wet and as I sat and consulted my map while having a break, I decided that I'd then join the South Tyne Trail after Lambley and head into Haltwhistle, get some supplies and basically save some energy for the next day, which I knew was going to be far more strenuous. The walk into Haltwhistle being reasonably scenic as the rain had now gone off and waterproofs came off for the day, which made things a bit more bareable, I don't think I missed out on anything really exciting by heading to Haltwhistle instead of more soggy fields and marshy ground to Greenhead, the goodies I'd pick up in Haltwhistle sounded much more appealing than the other route. I've since read, after getting home than many people choose this option and like I said earlier, if this path had been here when the Pennine Way was created, I'm sure it would have been part of it.
After a nice long break in Haltwhistle as I was only about 4 miles from Greenhead but it was still early, I set off again, my rucksack heavier with lots of goodies in it for the evening and the next day but it was a short journey and my legs were fresh, my boots even starting to get adry line on them for the first time since setting off. If you follow a signposted cycle rout from Haltwhistle, it takes you along a quiet country road to meet up with the main road heading to Greenhead, but when you cross the road there is a cycle route running alongside the road all the way to Greenhead so it was a nice walk in the afternoon sunshine into Greenhead, a couple of pints and a meal and this maybe explained why I found myself drifting off to sleep about 9pm. I always tend to sleep better on long walks, maybe a combination of the effort used, the fresh air, the good food and drink or more likely just the feeling of relaxation. I knew what some of tomorrow would bring but I only had 3 more days to walk, the end was in sight.
