Jeri’s Steps: 34,440
Miles walked: 13.4
Elevation: 1,312
Pints: 2
Churches: none
Stiles: 9
Benches: 1

The view from the breakfast room at the Langdon Beck Hotel today was magnificent and was a preview of the scenery to come. When walking down to Intake Farm we noticed a chicken at the side of the road. It seemed indecisive; maybe it was trying to avoid participating in a joke. After a small climb the path settled down next to the Tees river; we saw several fly fishermen. After a hand over hand scramble on the rocks at Falcon Clints, we came upon Cauldron Snout, a narrow rock passageway through which water from Cow Green reservoir feeds the Tees river. As a waterfall it was more impressive in many ways than yesterday’s High Force. We stopped to snack and admire the view, then started a long climb up the southern slopes of Dufton Fell following the Maize Beck. 

We have spent a long time planning LEJOG and one of the highlights from all the books we have read and PW YouTube documentaries has been High Cup Nick. It comes up unexpectedly as you cannot see  it’s majesty until you are upon it. High Cup Nick is an almost geometrically perfect U shaped valley shaped by glaciation. The edge falls away very suddenly and the sides look to be incredibly steep, but that doesn’t seem to stop sheep perching themselves on them and it didn’t stop someone building a drystone wall on the southern side. Wainwright thought it to be a ‘great moment on the journey’. For us it is the highlight of our walk so far. Just as we got there this afternoon an Air Force jet came screaming overhead and flew down the valley with perfect precision.

Quoting from Wainwright; “High Cup is revealed suddenly, without warning, and the effect is awesome. A profound abyss opens dramatically at one’s feet, a massive symmetrical bowl rimmed by a formation of columnar basalt crags that maintains a remarkably level contour all the way round”.

Jeri also mislaid her hat today. Two hats lost in less than 24 hours. Weird.