Day Five – text and pics contributed by Pete T.
Following a day of rest the St Cuthbert’s crew were clearly restless for their next day of hiking. The final cleaning of the accommodation was completed in record time by our well-oiled machine and we set off on the path around 9:30 a.m.
But surely nothing exciting could happen on the first mile-and-a-half road walk down to Wooler, which we’d already covered numerous times in the past couple of days. How wrong we were… passing a gateway to a field of sheep we noticed a young lamb was on the wrong side of the fence and desperately trying to get back over to the flock. Fortunately the well-practiced IOG pincer movement was put into operation and the scared little lamb was swiftly swept up into a member’s arms and dropped gently back on the correct side of the fence.
After that excitement we leisurely wandered into Wooler where appropriate supplies could be foraged from the coop or local coffee shop. We then meandered our way across the river bridge and out of Wooler for a few miles across some gentle rolling hills before stopping for elevenses on Weetwood bridge.
Following the path for another few miles brought us to a clearing on the side of the road next to a wood carving of St Cuthbert himself and a couple of convenient benches for a spot of lunch. A few minutes after our arrival we were greeted by a very nice lady who lived in the house across the road. She seemed surprised to see such a large group of pilgrims walking the trail at this time of the year but was still very accommodating to our potential needs at this stage of the trail.
From this point the path followed quite a stretch of road and farm track which was tiring on the feet but certainly not enough to stop our group of determined hikers.
A while later the route took us along a wooded path towards St Cuthbert’s cave where, of course, we stopped to take in the aura of the surroundings, as well as fluids and perhaps a hurried flapjack to keep energy up for the next section of the trail.
The final few miles of our 13.5-mile day took us down into Fenwick and then immediately back out of Fenwick towards our accommodation for the evening at the Lindisfarne Inn where suitable food and drinks were consumed to fuel us for the following day.