Durham (4) a riverside walk to.... the Garden centre !!

There are several reasons for doing this post from Durham, least of all because it was the next thing in the diary ... 26th February. Over the last few posts, I have noticed that the focus quality on transfer to blogger has suffered on compression to the size I transfer too. I have removed the "/s320 or /s400 " as directed by the help pages. Any comments and help appreciated here.

The second reason for this post was the inspiration that brian walking has been to me in providing me with the incentive of a route map. Brian seems to like walking in the same areas that i am familiar with and like me, loves to armchair walk at home at times. This post is dedicated to him as it has been a hard six months to get to this stage... It's not ideal but it's a start.....

The route starts at a car park on the top edge of the map, circles the outside river bend around the Cathedral and continues down the right hand side of the river to a garden centre at Shincliffe. For information, the city centre is also in the top left hand corner.

Finally the last reason for posting this walk even though the weather was not very good, was to show that I had not deserted the local walking group that I help to organise  (Previous blog walks ... post 2 - Craster,  4 - Leyburn Shawl, 14 - Etal to Ford and smaller groups to ... 29 Seahouses to Bamburgh & 43 Waterfalls walk). There have been several operational problems recently to do with my availability, the structure and facilities on the walk. I'll say no more on that one except that the original idea was to start from the Garden centre and walk into Durham. How shocked was I to discover that the walk had been reversed and the objective of the walk was to reach a Garden centre !!

Hopefully, there will be enough interest to capture your imagination by images along the route although I wasn't overjoyed with the material available today.

Riverside apartment for sale

River restaurant with a view

Alternative cathedral view

The first section of the walk I covered on Durham (2) Winter riverside walk and don't wish to repeat these images here so I opted for alternative angles..

Arrive by bike.....

... for boat practice

The 11th century chapel of St Andrew on Elvet bridge now a trendy Italian bistro called Melanzana.

It was time to leave the city and all the tourism features that involved and pretend that we were out on a serious walk !

A view from the bridge....walk down the left and back up the right

Lemon Drizzle trophy at the other end

On the return journey, we passed a pagoda next to Durham City cricket club. The weather seemed to get darker as I opted for black and white and the grim reaper was evident on the roof...

Cricket seems like it has always been played here next to the river as the club was formed in 1829 and was one of the first to join the local league many years later in 1903. In more recent years, Durham County cricket club was given senior status to play with the big teams and have done rather well. The people of North East England are historically passionate about their chosen sport and cricket is no different here.

On crossing the bridge, we entered urban life again and found a man.... fishing for his lunch. Is the cost of food this expensive in Durham City? !!

A couple of skyline shots to finish with of the 11th century Cathedral and Castle keep, the latter being rebuilt in the 1840's for University student use.

After a quick trip across the city centre we reached the "restaurant with a view" but there was no customary tea shop at the end of the walk so I remembered my earlier visit into the Garden centre wearing my full mountain equipment... the embarrassment of it !! It's just as well it was a large cup.... because it had to last a lot longer than I thought it would !!