Alston

I definitely drank too much last night but, seeing as today was a day off, I wasn’t too bothered. That said I woke up this morning with a little bit of a thick head so I was very pleased I wasn’t walking.

For the first time in quite some time I actually went down for breakfast on my day off. I seem to have gotten into the habit of just lying in bed all morning on my days off but I knew I had some work to do today: yesterday’s blog post needed to be finished off and I had accommodation to book for the next couple of days. With that in mind I knew I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing all day.

First job of the day was to get yesterday’s blog post finished off and posted. I’d made a lot of notes before the beer really took over yesterday so I had a good idea what I wanted to say. That said, it still seemed to take quite some time to get it finished off. I knew I should have concentrated on that last night but the beer was just too good to ignore at the Cumberland!

While I was writing the post up got a text from my buddy Lee. We’d arranged to meet up in Haltwhistle tomorrow but seeing as it was a Sunday, and I had the day off, he said he’d drive to Alston instead and we could spend the afternoon and evening catching up. I thought that was a great idea and we arranged to meet at the bar – where else? – at 2pm.

With a deadline now in front of me I eventually got the blog post finished and with that job out of the way, I moved on to sorting out accommodation for the next couple of nights. Matt had emailed me some details of places so I checked them out, made a couple of phone calls and that job was done.

All chores done I headed out to take a little stroll round Alston and to find a shop to pick up some supplies. Alston was a lovely little place, albeit a little on the busy side, it being a weekend and all.

As I strolled round I noticed more and more scarecrows in gardens and outside shops. This was all to do with the Alston Moor Grand Scarecrow competition. People had made them in to firemen, ambulance men – with ambulance – and also the characters from the Wizard of Oz! They were great and clearly quite a few people had spent some considerable time putting them together.

All my jobs done for the day there was nothing left to do but to sit at the bar, have a beer and wait for Lee to turn up, which took him a little longer than planned so by the time he did arrive – about half an hour late – I’d not had any lunch, not knowing if he’d eaten yet or not, and was already three pints in. Ho hum.

We had another and chatted for a bit and then headed over to Alston Town Hall to watch the football. They’d set up a big projector screen and the place was pretty full. There was a bar there – add two more beers to the list – and we had a good laugh watching England crash out of the World Cup…oh dear.

Game ended, and lots of dejected people, we headed back to the Cumberland for a few more drinks – non-alcoholic this time – some food and a lot more chat, putting the world to rights as only two guys can!

It was a great afternoon and evening and great to catch up with Lee. We hadn’t seen each other in quite some time so to spend that much time catching up was fantastic. Cheers for driving over mate, very much appreciated and fantastic to see you. I’ll definitely be coming up for a weekend of beer and fun once I’ve caught up with myself after the walk, you can count on it!

Another great day off from the walk and a relatively easy day ahead tomorrow. The Cumberland was a little gem. The room was pretty good, the food was good and the beer was great. I guess I could have managed without a day off today but seeing as I’m not on a concrete schedule it didn’t really matter. Anyway, a day off to catch up with my old mate was a tonic in itself.

Photos

I f you want to find out more about this day you can see the photos I took.