After our early morning walk the previous day, we had hoped to get loads of photo's of the river frozen over today. But like all best laid plans a dramatic rise in the temperature overnight had seen the onset of a mini thaw. However, we still wanted to get out and give Tim a nice walk, so we jumped onto the nº 76 bus and headed into Darlington to start the walk. Our planned route was to walk back along the river using The Teesdale Way path, we started in Blackwell, on the outskirts of the town, and then had a short walk along the road to reach the river. We were pleasantly surprised to see loads of snow still covering the banks and there was still a decent amount of ice as well. However, the icing on the cake was found when we reached the weir across the river at Broken Scar, above this the river is much deeper and still, so it had remained frozen right across.
Not the most scenic spots to strat the walk from, but handy for us at it was the nearest bus stop!
We had to walk through Blackwell to reach the river, which is on the outskirts of Darlington
Eventually we reached the spot where we joined The Teesdale Way
A short walk along the quite lane
brought us to the River Tees, which we would follow all the way back to home, about 6 miles
After getting wrong from a couple of regular web site visitors about no Tim photo's on our walk yesterday, he's back!
There was still plenty of snow and ice around despite the increase in the temperatures
It was hard to think that a few weeks ago when we had the flooding that the river level would have been over my head at the spot?
A dead tree caught in the ice, probably washed down from further up river somewhere
A couple of brave people fishing in the icy water, they were checking upstream for more ice, as that huge piece in front of them with the rocks on had just floated down past them as we were there
In places there was still plenty of ice on the river
Approaching the weir at Broken Scar
It was built back in the 70's (?) to maintain the water level for the water treatment works
Behind the weir the river had a lot more ice on it
In fact I was surprised to see so much ice, as it had warmed up at lot overnight
The old Victorian steam powered pumping station, which is open to the public several times at year
Which has been replaced by the modern treatment works, across the road
En route we passed the Baydale Beck pub, a great refreshment stop if needed
The Teesdale Way is way marked by the Dipper, there's plenty of them to be seen along the river
The quiet village of Low Coniscliffe, where we rejoined the river, after the short stretch of road from the weir
I was even more surprised to see the river still frozen this far up stream from the weir
These looked like fox footprints across the snow and ice
We didn't try to follow the fox as the ice looked very wet and I didn't think it would take my weight
I can only ever remember the river freezing over like this once before about 20 years ago
By the time we reached the A1 bridge the river was free flowing again
Tim checking out the remains of the wooden sculpture, it was put there several years ago, but the vandals have gotten to it over the years. Originally it provided a couple of lovely benches beside the river, a great spot to sit and relax, sadly not so now
More ice along the river banks
and even more by the ford
Where Tim couldn't help going for a quick dip, he's definitely barking mad!
This is the spot where I got some great reflection shots last week, far too much ice today
Tim's dip in the river hadn't seemed to cause him too much of a problem, but I think some of his fur had frozen?
Another dead tree in the river, the recent floods seemed to have washed plenty down
Ice on the tree branches overhanging the river
I was at this spot a few days before and there's loads more ice on the river now
A familiar view by now, which means we are almost home
The river is still well frozen on the bend in front of the house!
One last look at the river before we head home for a cuppa and some cake for afternoon tea!
I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the photograph's from this walk? If you have any questions or comments regarding them or the walk in general, please either leave a message below, or send me an email, and I will get back to you asap. Thanks Gary ...
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Our last walk was an early morning walk around High Coniscliffe
Our next walk was a visit to Low Force
Other County Durham walks 2010 walks journalAll of the photograph's from this walk were taken using my Sony A700 camera © www.mywainwrights.co.uk (This page was last updated - 20 January 2010)
