Sometimes going off the beaten track is the best thing to do. To get “lost” with purpose can be great fun (of course, these days, it’s difficult to get well and truly lost, what with near blanket GPS coverage in the UK). What you can do, at least, is try and veer away from the familiar, to take the road less travelled, so to speak. Sometimes you do this on purpose, more often than not, it’s by accident, and you end up asking yourself (or the other person in the car); “where the heck are we going?!” Well, as long as you have enough petrol, and don’t have an emergency/appointment to attend to, then just go with it.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I headed up to Northumberland with my mum and driving up the oh-so-pretty M6 (not), we noticed there was a ridiculous amount of traffic on the other side heading south, where people seemed to be sitting for a while. Mum’s immediate reaction was “I’m not sitting in that on the way back,” so we needed to find an alternative way. The problem is that between where we were and home… the Pennines are in the way, so it would involve going over them. We’d never done that before so it would be a little bit of an adventure, even just a small one.

On a little bit of a side note – one of the things I like doing, and I find brings me a lot of joy, is pretending that I’m going on an adventure, even when I’m doing something really mundane. Maybe it’s because I loved fantasy or adventure books as a kid. I think it’s also that we have a tendency to focus so much on the destination, or are too busy looking at our phones/gadgets etc. that we forget to actually really look at the world around us. I know this is heading off into the mindfulness realm rather than about the North, but I find that it really works for me, and also helps me pay attention to my surroundings. I started trying to do this when I was going on walks, even setting myself the challenge of spotting things that began with ‘A’, ‘B’, etc. etc. so that I was really looking around me, and taking in what was there.

So, anyway, back to the journey. We turned off into the countryside just after Haltwhistle (happily also avoiding long traffic lights at Brampton). It was foggy the morning we did this, and I was a bit worried we’d be driving through country roads in pea soup, but it actually burnt out within a couple of miles, to reveal beautiful countryside. That I’d never seen before. Because we’d always taken the “quickest” route from A to B, we’d missed out on this gorgeous winding road through the South Tyne Valley. It was wild enough with craggy hills, forests, and the river running through the valley. With the sun shining over the tops of the hills, and with the purple heather on the ground (mid August – early September for the best heather), it was a really beautiful ride.

We stopped off in the village of Alston, which was a really pretty village, but like so many other places has clearly suffered in the downturn of economics/covid etc. There was evidence with independent shops that the community was trying to pick itself up, make the village vibrant and centred around the community, but it was still very quiet. It was such a shame because, as I said, the village architecture and surroundings were so pretty, and I felt like at one point it would have been a thriving town. Maybe, I was just there on the wrong day.

Anyway, after that we headed towards Penrith, climbing up to the top of Hartside Summit (Altitude of 1903 ft). We pulled over into the car park at the top to take in the view. It was a little bit hazy over the Eden Valley, but still a far-reaching view. I imagine on a clear day you’d be able to see the coast and the Lake District Mountains, and potentially even further afield (I’ve heard some people say they can see the Welsh Mountains from high points in the NW (don’t know if you’d be able to see that far from Hartside; there might be some things in the way!). The drive down should be taken with care as there is plenty of hairpin bends (I would not want to be doing that in the middle of winter!).

The rest of the journey was a pleasant amble through the countryside towards Penrith and then further down. Yes, it took us a bit longer than it would have if we’d have gone down the motorway, but the ride was much more pleasant and it was a really nice to get away from the traffic and into the countryside. I would definitely recommend it from time to time, just turn off the main road… sure keep an eye on the GPS… but then see where the country road takes you!