Walking the River Caldew from Dalston to Carlisle

The train that took us from Carlisle to Dalston. It was a beautiful day for our walk. Within 2 minutes of buying his train ticket Peter had lost his but the Ticket Inspector was very nice about it and as we were only travelling to Dalston she accepted his explanation.

This will be Tom's longest walk since his operation and from now on we will include a few hills in our walk as he is getting fitter every week.

The river Caldew

The walk took us through Cummersdale and the factory of Stead McAlpin. They were one of my biggest customers in my Atlasair days and I visited this factory on many occasions. It was one of their 2 tonne shipments I tried to book on Pan Am 103 in 1988 but was refused a booking because it had a full passenger load but when it blew up over Lockerbie there were over 100 empty seats on it. Maybe sometime in the future the real truth about PA103 will be told.

This is an old cotton mill at Denton Holme which has been converted into very nice flats

The Weir at Denton Holme which must have been put there for the cotton mill.

At this point in the walk the temperature must have been in the low 60sF. One of the nicest days we have walked this year.

The trees all along the river bank were full of berries. It will provide the birds with food all winter.

After our walk we had lunch in the Cakes and Ale Cafe near the Castle. The building in the background with the scaffolding is rumoured to be the new offices of EWM. Whether this is true only time will tell but if it is then its a despicable move by them and I feel nothing but contempt for them deserting the town that put them on the map. It will be the final nail in the coffin for our wonderful little town.