Durham to Darlington

Hello. I feel like I've been trekking for ages, and it's only two days. A couple of blisters to deal with, but otherwise ok. Another 18 miles today.

I thought you might like to see some of the food on offer at breakfast this morning. The Radisson certainly know how to keep the customers happy. There's something for everyone. Pity some of the customers staying on business had to rush their breakfast, I was able to take my time and enjoy the food. 

Sorry there are not many walk photo's tonight, I did a lot of road walking, not a lot to see there. My route took me out of Durham on the A176 towards Darlington. The straight forward route would be to follow this, but I got off it and zigzagged on minor roads, looking to get away from the traffic noise. I went through Langley Moor, and Meadowfield, then got on a path and followed the River Wear which is the Weardale Way.   

This is the Croxdale Viaduct.

There was one section where a lot of young trees had been chopped down, I thought it looked so sad to see the short trunks, I suppose they will grow again. But then I came across this. They had used the wood to build up the bank to stop the field slipping into the stream. What a good idea to use natural materials.

I carried on along tarmac roads, through Spennymoor, Kirk Merrington, and Newton Aycliffe.

Tonight I am in the Holiday Inn just north of Darlington, next to the A1M. I was hoping to go a little further, but it had been raining since about 2pm, the walk through Newton Aycliffe was not very inspiring, it's a massive housing estate and an industrial estate. Luckily I passed a big Tesco so I was able to get some food for a picnic in my room. So, being a bit damp, and coming across the hotel I decided to call it a day at 5.30pm.

I had a phone call tonight from my cat sitter Janet, everything is hunkydorey there. Tomorrow I'm heading for Northallerton. I imagine there will be some difficulty in finding a bed for the night, being a Saturday night I think the hotels will be busy.

I'm going to watch telly now. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip