During a trip to Richmond, Yorkshire, we embarked on a 12-mile ramble along the Pennine Way from Middleton-in-Teesdale to High Force Waterfall, with a visit to the smaller Low Force fall en route.
This was my first long ramble since September 2022 although there have been various five to six-mile walks around nature reserves and woodlands. But this was the first to really test the legs.
High Force was impressive but I noticed it didn't have as much water as last time. The previous time we visited had been just after a storm and it was an even more spectacular sight with water gushing down the rocks.
High Force, Teesdale in February 2020
Here's what I previously wrote about Low and High Force: https://cosycottageandthequestforthegoodlife.wordpress.com/2020/02/29/waterfalls-in-teesdale/
Half way on the walk was located Bowlees Visitor Centre, a venue offering refreshments and toilet facilities. As usual I had been looking forward to a nice cup of tea but I was wary of anticipating too much.
Before our hike, we had been browsing in a Middleton bookshop and had been warned by the helpful bookseller that Bowlees was closed on a Monday. Alas, she was right. There may have been people inside the building but the doors were locked and it was definitely closed. So there went my pot of tea, I just had to stick to our flask of water instead. (Luckily the toilet was open so my bladder was happy).
Exploring the vicinity, we came across a car park and a sign to 'Gibson's Cave and Summerhill Force'.
On our map was the word 'waterfall'.
"Shall we go?" asked Simon.
"We might as well," I replied.
It may have added another two miles to our walk (at that point, a 10-mile trek), but we lived a couple of hours away, who knows when we would be back?
Walking alongside the River Tees, we saw no more signs but believed the waterfall and cave would be somewhere in the locality of the river. Simon assumed a small cave overlooking the river was Gibson's Cave and a mini waterfall was Summerhill Force. Pleasant enough but nothing out of the ordinary, in my view. Although I had just witnessed High Force, so no wonder I was a tad underwhelmed.
But we carried on our walk a little further until we reached a beautiful waterfall with a substantial overhang behind. This was what we were looking for - Gibson's Cave and Summerhill Force. The trip to this picturesque beauty spot was worth the extra two miles. And why Gibson's Cave? There's a legend of an outlaw called William Gibson. Running away from the law, he sought refuge and hid in this recess behind the waterfall. And at some point this lovely location became Gibson's Cave.
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