13 September
2023 - Kielder
Miles
driven today = 65
Total Miles
to date = 461
It was an autumnally chilly 9 degrees outside when I got up
to put the kettle on this morning. We
seem to have gone from being too warm under our duvet to having to add extra
blankets within the space of just a few days.
We haven’t yet succumbed to popping the heating on in the van just yet
but Winter is definitely coming and we were very grateful that the shower
blocks at The Barn at Beal were warm.
Although our journey today has been generally southward, the
majority of it has been driven on the most wonderfully winding Scottish A and B
roads. We passed through Kelso and
Jedburgh before entering the Cheviots, crossing the border again and
approaching Kielder along roads which are merely single track with passing
places.
We had considered staying in Kielder for a couple of nights
and perhaps cycling the 26 mile Lakeside Way around Kielder Water but some
rather unpromising weather forecasts and limited availability at the campsite
we want to stay at near Hadrian’s Wall have dictated we are only staying here
for the one night.
We have absolutely no phone signal or data here and we
completely forgot to download the OS maps before we left the coast this
morning. So first job was to head up the
hill to Kielder Castle, which was once a hunting lodge for the Duke of
Northumberland but nowadays serves as an Information Centre and Café. There we were able to pick up some maps of
the local walking routes.
We chose to follow the green way-markers of the Duchess
Trail. A 2 mile route which was
apparently so named as it was the Duchess’ favourite walk.
It starts by following the banks of the Kielder Burn
upstream for a way.
It then leads across a meadow before crossing the Burn via
this lovely old bridge.
The trail then winds its way through a mixture of pine and
deciduous woodland.
Lisa had a slight ulterior motive for coming to
Kielder. With the rain we have had over
the last few days she was hopeful of doing a bit of foraging and very soon we
were heading off-piste. Fairly quickly
we had managed to nab ourselves this impressive haul of Hedgehog Mushrooms.
We were feeling rather pleased with our efforts when all of
a sudden we stumbled across the motherload of hedgehogs stretching down the
bank as far as we could see. There were
far too many for us to pick or use ourselves so we left the majority for other
lucky souls to harvest.
Hedgehog Mushrooms are very easy to identify because they
have spines instead of gills. They are
very meaty and amongst the tastiest mushrooms to be found in the UK. They also don’t seem to attract bugs and wild
animals in the way that many other edible mushrooms do so you don’t have to
worry so much about getting extra maggoty protein in your mushroom stroganoff. If you wanted to buy a kilogram of these beauties at Borough Market in London they would set you back at least £50.
The forest floor was also carpeted with Wood Sorrel which
has a mild lemony flavour. Very tasty in
salads.
Lisa, Queen of the Forest with our fungal haul.
On our way back to the van we came across this stone maze
called “Minotaur”.
We found our way to the middle. Now how do we escape?!
We are spending the night in the Car Park at the
Anglers’ Arms. They charge £10 to stay the
night whether you eat here or not. They
also charge a tenner to stay in the Castle Car Park and in retrospect that
would have probably been a better option.
The menu here is fairly limited but there don’t appear to be too many
alternatives locally. And they do have
wi-fi, although it doesn’t extend to the car park so it’s going to be at least
tomorrow before I can get this online.
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