Day 143, Birchwood to Merrivale Hut (2934)
Low cloud in the morning but it slowly lifted and by mid afternoon there was a clear blue sky.
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| A load of lambs |
As I left Birchwood they were loading the first batch of 3500 lambs that were going for slaughter today.
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| Sheep country |
The first part followed the gravel road for a short distance before turning off to follow a fence up an increasingly steep grass slope to arrive at a radio mast in the cloud.
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| Climbing up the hill |
An exhausting start for the day but at least I reached the high point early in the day.
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| Open beechwoods |
There was a forest track on the other side for a distance before going into more beech forest for the descent to the road at Scotts Gap.
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| Long gravel road |
A final climb over Island Bush Hill that is a commercial plantation that had been harvested, some of which had been replanted.
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| Looking back |
The path was diverted through the cut section of the forest and I managed to catch my foot on a branch and fall flat on my face. No damage done thank goodness.
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| Merrivale hut |
A couple of kilometres along the road then to the Merrivale Hut which has an excellent camping area which I decided to use.
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| And camping area |
The owner came round with beer and another guy turned up with ice-cream for us as well, real trail angels. I heard later that the temperature had got up to 30 today, no wonder the last bit of road was tough!
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