LEJOG Day 55: Langdon Beck to Dufton

Weather: Partly sunny with chilly westerly, then cloudy

Distance covered today: 22.2km (13.8mi)

Last night's B&B: The Dale (£25)

Cumulative distance: 1092.8km (679.0mi)/ % Complete: 57.1%

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 55 (click!)

This morning, I set out feeling just a little jaundiced about the day ahead. A cursory view of the route showed me that I was going to end the day closer to Land’s End and further from John O’Groats than I started it! The Pennine Way in its maddeningly snaky way was actually taking me West-South-West into Cumbria. I had to remind myself that it was the journey, not the destination that was important!

In the event, I wouldn’t have missed today for the world. I knew I was going to go past High Cup Nick, and I had heard something about it, but the real thing exceeded all my expectations, and the rest of the day was quite exceptional as well! At last the guide writer and I agree on something. He describes High Cup Nick as “the most impressive feature on the northern section of the Pennine Way”. I think it is the most impressive view I have seen since leaving Land’s End!!

But perhaps the most surprising development of the day took place fairly soon after I left Langdon Beck this morning. I was wandering through a pristine landscape, flanked by gorgeous moorland fells, thinking about the lovely, spongy feel of the grassy peat beneath my feet, when I noticed a pole-sign beside the trail, unremarkable except that most way-markers appear only when there is a change of direction. I didn’t take much notice, except at the last moment I saw that there was something bright blue on the green sign, which was unusual. I gave it my full attention and was greatly surprised to see a blue envelope enclosed in a clear plastic cover with the word “Kevin” written on it in big letters! I decided there couldn’t possibly be any other Kevins walking that section of the Way today, surely? So I plucked the letter off the pole and opened it.

Sure enough, it was a delightful card from none other than Carmen and Gilles, who I had met much earlier on the Pennine Way! You can only imagine the effect on me of receiving a real piece of mail addressed to me, in the middle of the back of beyond, stuck to a sign! In my anyway heightened state of awareness, I became quite emotional about it! It was a simple gesture of friendship and connection, but it took some effort to buy the cards, find the plastic and the duct-tape, and stick it on the pole. It could easily have been pointless, because the chances of my finding it were minuscule. But measured by the pleasure of my receipt of it, it was a magnificent gesture! Carmen and Gilles are accelerating away from me now, so I can’t reciprocate, but somehow I feel that our connection will continue….

It got me to thinking about chance encounters that have great significance in one’s life. For some reason I was thinking of my work career, which led me to remember the two people, both now very sadly dead, who had the most profound effect on the direction of my career and my very presence here in the UK today. Brian Marsh was the first of those. I described earlier that my early days in the oil major were characterised by a very lively scepticism about the nature of multi-national business and especially about oil majors prepared to remain in apartheid South Africa. I did my job, but I refused to get sucked into the corporate vortex. I was sceptical about the values of the organisation, though I was continually surprised that the ethical standards of my colleagues and of the organisation in general well exceeded those of the vast majority of my revolutionary friends outside. Nevertheless, I was far from committed, and that was reflected in the organisation’s perception of me and of my long-term prospects, which in their rather unsavoury way, they committed to numbers. These suggested that my potential was very little higher than the level I had already reached. I thought that irrelevant because I had no intention of staying anyway, and I certainly wasn’t going to get sucked into the corporate vortex. Until I met Brian.

Brian was the most unusual professional chemical engineer that I had met. He was a polymath, interested in and expert in a huge range of subjects. He was someone who believed passionately in the power of rational thought and someone who lived all his life in the world of ideas. He loved theatre and literature, and he constantly questioned the status quo. He also listened to me. Unlike many other senior colleagues at work, he didn’t tell me what to think. He explored my ideas with me, and asked enough questions that caused me to see that some of my ideas were ritualistically immature. I came to that conclusion, not him. He also tested me. He set me tasks that tested me but that I enjoyed performing. He challenged me to become knowledgeable in areas I knew little about, such as alternative energy supplies that I thought were only the domain of scientific experts. He organised for me to travel widely internationally to attend conferences and read papers. On one hugely surprising occasion, I found myself in Stuttgart in Germany giving a private presentation to the Chief Engineer of Daimler Benz (someone viewed in that country very close to being more important in the public perception than the Chancellor!!) on the merits of methanol as a diesel fuel replacement. He changed the company’s perception of me, and much more important, he changed my perception of myself. He launched my career.

Many years later, sometime after I had been through the trauma of a heart attack brought on by cigarettes and extreme stress, my life was changed again by one Alan Goldsmith. Alan worked in London, but had responsibility for the company in South Africa. We met each other and got on.  He had obviously observed me for some time and he did know about my health problems. After the heart attack, on the advice of my medical consultants, I had decided to take a lower profile at work, for fear of further heart problems, but Alan thought that would frustrate me to death. I don’t know how he did it, but after a change in his own role, he engineered an opportunity for me as General Manager of the company in Portugal. I wouldn’t have been the obvious choice. At the time, I had no Latin languages, let alone Portuguese, and I had no experience of managing on the European continent. Somehow, he persuaded his superiors that I was the appropriate choice, he then persuaded the CEO in Cape Town, and finally they all persuaded me.  Someone who I really didn’t know very well quietly made all that effort on my behalf, for no obvious personal benefit. But it did change my life. The fact that I was given a fantastic career opportunity and incidentally that we now live in England is almost solely due to Alan’s efforts on my behalf, without my even knowing about it!

Brian and Alan are sadly dead, Brian of a massive heart attack, Alan of cancer. I would so much have liked to discuss these things with them now. As I walked those lovely moors today, thinking about Brian and Alan, I reflected that I at least know of the huge effect they had on me and my career. I was caused to wonder about the individuals who also had a huge effect, both positive and negative, that I know nothing about. How much of our lives is affected by people who never reveal themselves?

And how many lives have I similarly affected?

P.S. In case you are interested, I have updated the three previous posts with photos and route data…..

The wonderful surprise of a letter from Carmen and Gilles, just waiting for me on a sign-post

300 million years ago, violent eruptions forced molten rock between existing sedimentary rocks. The rock itself cooled to form whinstone, an extremely hard quartz-dolerite, exposed in Teesdale as the Whin Sill. Limestone was hardened and fractured into granules known as "sugar limestone". These slopes were later colonised by arctic-alpine flora which exists to this day and has made Teesdale a unique, beautiful and very interesting place.  

But not an easy place to walk through. I was warned that this "boulder scree" was responsible for more twisted ankles and broken hips than any other part of the Pennine Way. Naturally, I was very careful!

But at other times the Tees was just a murmering beck. In the distance is the whitewashed headquarters of Natural England in the area. Almost all the buildings in this part of Teesdale are leased from one of the great, old estates, with a clause in the lease that only whitewash will be used, giving the valley a unique look, especially at Langdon Beck 

This is Cauldron Snout, a cascade of water below the controversial Cow Green Reservoir, which required an Act of Parliament in the 60s for its construction above the precious Tees valley

Marvellous lichens on a rock near Cauldron Snout. This could have been a GCSE Art project on its own!

Suddenly, High Cup Nick starts to appear!!

Looking down at High Cup from the Nick. It is an incredibly impressive and vast valley, sprinkled with sugar limestone and stretching all the way down to the plains of Cumbria

Approaching the other side of the High Cup, showing the quartz-dolerite cliffs which form the cup

And finally, back down to civilisation and a country road leading to my resting place for two nights, Dufton