Bink Moss From Bowlees, Teesdale

Bink Moss....sounds like things could be wet underfoot! And so it proved! A reasonably early start (for me) saw me parked up at Bowlees for 10am. The drive over great as always...although this would be the last time for a while...I'll be back on the motorbike mind.
The forecast promised heavy rain for early/mid afternoon, and with little shelter up on Bink Moss I hoped to be back at the car for 3ish....

First a visit to Low Force, impressive today with the volume of water in the River Tees

Across Wynch Bridge and another view of Low Force

As I left the river the view Westwards to Upper Teesdale opened up.

Typical upper Teesdale scenery...what the photo can't convey is the bird calls, Curlew, Lapwing and Snipe. High above me the Skylarks were out....Spring must be nearly here!

In the distance are Cross Fell, Great and Little Dun Fells and  over to the left on this picture Mickle Fell. Just behind me is the summit of Bink Moss, this was my last Pennine Nuttall...I shall be driving a good deal further to climb new hills for a while.

Varying my route back I benefited from these duckboards for a while as I followed the fence.

Eventually I had to cut across the heather, bog and moss to visit this cairn on Millstone How Hill. 

I found a good shelter for my lunch on the way back down

The forecast was wrong thankfully so I extended my walk to pick up the Pennine Way. descending to the trail via Bleabeck Force.

Bleabeck Force was just the aperitif for the main course of High Force. Very impressive today.
From here it was just a case of following he Pennine Way back beside the River Tees to Wynch Bridge, Bowlees and the car.
I'll be a bit sad not to be walking the wide open expanses of the Northern Pennines for a while as I head to pastures new....