Neil directed us the next day, even though I knew the way, which allowed him to prattle on about the local sites and sights while I simply drove. For once, his chatter fitted the day for it worked like a cross between a sat nav and a tour guide. We heard all about how Cragside in Rothbury, powered by hydroelectricity. how the steam turbine was invented in Newcastle, which also had the world’s first electric public lighting, using the light bulb invented in Sunderland and copied by a man called Edison, and Neil was partway through a rather too detailed account of lawsuits and combined companies when he stopped dead.
“Sorry, all. I got talking, and then I remembered another place I want to see. It’s a little before the car park, Mike”
We were already on the open moor road, heather in great sweeps to either side, when he simply said, “Next right to park”, and I turned into a rather full rough car park. Once we were out of the car, he gathered us together, now almost schoolteacherish in his manner.
“Please don’t stand or climb on any of the rock around here. This is Lordenshaws, and it’s very, very old. We’ll walk there and back, so I can get some photos and you can see something special”
He led us up a gentle slope on a pleasant grassy track, Maz chanting away bout meadow pipits and curlews, until some ridges became apparent to our right.
“Maz, Mike said something to me one night in Australia. About four years ago. He might not remember, because he was very drunk at the time. About a bucket list”
She raised both eyebrows.
“I don’t remember anything around here, except the Wall and Holy Island”
He shook his head.
“No, but you did say ‘Stonehenge’. I don’t know if you’ll get to see that one, but this might be close. That’s a hill fort, and it’s around two thousand years old”
“Wow!”
“Not finished yet”
He led us to a slab of rock sitting just off the path. It was speckled with odd holes, each surrounded by carved rings that looked as if someone had tried to depict raindrops hitting water.
“These are cup and ring marks. They’re about SIX thousand years old, which is older than Stonehenge”
“I’m… Neil? You are bloody amazing!”
She flung her arms around him, planting a very tender kiss on his cheek before pulling out her own camera, LC following suit, before discovering how she could lean against the wind by holding her opened jacket out wide. As Neil began his ‘proper job’ on the markings, the other three headed up to the fort as I hung back for a few moments.
“It’s okay, Mike: I’ve been up there several times. You don’t have to wait for me”
“Just a question, mate. I don’t remember that chat”
He stared at me, that tight focus he showed sometimes locked on my face.
“Ish was staying with the Butts that night. You were very drunk, Mike. And you were crying. I didn’t think that would be a helpful thing to mention. She’s not healed fully, has she?”
I shook my head.
“She’s getting better, Neil, but I don’t know if she’ll ever be back to who she was”
“She’ll always be who she was, Mike. Just bend with her… Sorry. I am giving you instructions. Not my place”
“No, mate, you’re not out of place. Thanks for all you’ve done”
“I’ll change the subject then, sort of. She was laughing so much on the rock, and so was your little girl. I know you’re going down to Sheffield, but you won’t have any gear. Oh, I’m guessing you’ll be going to the Peak. I have some portraits work booked, so I can’t join you”
I found myself grinning.
“Already covered, mate! Maz is starting to discover how many friends she has that she hadn’t met. Speaking of which, how much longer here?”
“Ah, about another hour for me. Go and catch up with the others, then collect me on the way down. I’ve… Maddy made me set my phone alarm when I started something detailed. I’ll do that now”
I gave him a quick hug, without the snog, then joined my family, who were entranced. Maz settled against me as a I sat on a grassy lump.
“He is inspired, man of mine! Six thousand years, wow. I thought the Wall was old!”
“So this suits you, then?”
“Oh most definitely! What are the hills over there?”
“Edge of the Cheviots, love. Scotland on the other side of them”
“So close?”
“The Border slants”
“Could we…?”
I had planned out a route for the following day, skirting the edge of Newcastle to pick up the A1 south, but… juggling routes in my head, I was considering Gretna and cutting back through Skipton, but that would mean crap around Bradford, and…
Neil’s alarm obviously worked better than my internal one, for it was he who collected us, rather than the other way round. We drove the short distance to the Simonside car park, where all our climbing kit was gathered, and we set off for the summit rocks. Just as we passed through one of the areas planted with conifers, Ish held a hand out, then put a finger to his lips, as a rather large deer walked out of the trees to stand on the path looking at us from a distance that must have been less than forty yards, before something about us registered and it took off at speed.
“Dad?”
“Yes, love?”
“What was it?”
“That was a deer, love”
“Is this a good picture?”
That it was. She had caught it beautifully, and I knew we had a job to do back home.
“Mum? Come and see what Carolyn got for us”
Maz and the others gathered round, making appreciative noises, until I simply said , “Print?”, and Maz replied, “For the wall at home!”, as Ish added, “And e-mails to the Butts and your work” and a little girl preened.
It’s a bit of a walk to the rocks, but we were eventually there, settling on the Picnic Boulder for a look at the crag proper, before we started uphill once more, and my family were introduced to decent Northumbrian sandstone. In between toproping some lower-grade stuff, from Mod to Hard V Diff, which suited LC, Ish and I soloed some Severes. Maz gradually pushed her own limits, until we had her finishing a couple of routes at HVS.
It was hard to pick out a highlight for the day, but, just possibly, it was Great Chimney, always one of my favourite easier climbs. You start and finish up said chimney, but halfway through you come out of the back of the chimney into a pleasant little cave. I soloed up to the cave, followed by Maz, as Ish followed LC as Neil worked the toprope. Once we were all cuddled in the cave, I showed them the finish, Neil following after I had reset the belay and taken in the rope. He could have soloed it quite easily, but he never seemed to feel willing to push that boat out very far.
It was windy on top, as usual, but the views were even wider than they had been at the fort, the North Sea glinting to the East, and my family happy around me.
I changed the route back, curling round by way of Elsdon while avoiding its famous gibbet for obvious reasons of not having to try and explain what it was for to a six-year-old, and took the road up past Otterburn until Maz got her tick at the Border, in the lay-by at Carter Bar, where we fed ourselves bacon buns from a van marked ‘Reiver’s View’, which naturally led to all sorts of questions from my lot. There was a man in a kilt playing the great pipes, various bits of souvenir tat to but and the usual excess of national symbols found at any border. As we drove back towards our cottage, Neil did his schoolteacher thing once again.
“A reiver was a man who stole from his neighbours, and it was very violent. The local word ‘rive’ means to twist and jerk at something until it comes loose, and it was like that. Films all show Scots reivers coming into England to steal cattle, but it was usually the other way, as you can see from where the fertile land is”
“On the Scottish side?”
“Yes, Maz, except that’s also not quite right. Both sides were neither Scots nor English, and it was all based on family. English Armstrongs, for example, would rob in Scotland and England, and when the authorities, such as they were, came looking for them, they would stay on whichever side of the border was safest. Then there came the Union of the Crowns, and they had nowhere to go. That piper there, that’s from the North of Scotland, and has nothing at all to do with this place. All rubbish for tourists. You were laughing when we got down from Simonside, Mike”
A change in subject, thank god.
“A memory, Neil, from a solo trip there years ago. Got a good day’s climbing in, and got down to the car park just as twilight was starting to come on”
Maz prompted me with her “And?”
“And the midges came out. I was in my full gear except for my helmet, so I quickly pulled it on and dropped the visor”
“What’s midges, Dad” came simultaneously from both kids.
“Midges are small insects, bloodsucking ones. They come in clouds, big ones”
“What’s a visor?”
“That thing on Neil’s motorbike hat that he looks through”
Maz suddenly burst into laughter.
“Let me guess! You dropped the visor on a lid filled with midges?”
“Absolutely! Goy just past the trees before I nearly dropped the bike. They were only under those trees, so once I pulled the lid off, they were cleared away by the wind, but, well, just glad we left there when we did today”
“Did midges bite reivers, Dad?”
“Certainly, love. Possibly explains their bad attitude. Anyway, Neil gave me an idea for tonight”
“I did? When?”
“Earlier, mate. Maz, kids, after we’ve eaten tonight, we need to take a walk up from the cottage, just to get away from the pub’s lights. Stars, Maz: the Northern Cross will be up, and this is a ‘dark sky’ reserve. Chance to see some new stars”
We got home while it was still light, the northern Summer giving us so much more daylight, and our meals were just as tasty, Anth offering LC a ‘special pudding’ of her own, which consisted of four small bowls holding different desserts, which tempted her enough that she didn’t need ice cream. We had enough ale, wine or coke to satisfy us, and then said a proper farewell to a superb host.
“Neil, marra: you’ll be coming back now?”
“Anth, well, I have a plan. Maddy… She’s still at home. I think she needs to be free. The first time we came up here, we saw someone spreading ashes. ‘Dance on the wind’, those were the words. I think she needs that”
“She deserves it, Neil. You let us know when and where, and I’ll sort out a room for you, okay. And you can have our company for it as well. Which way are yez all heading the morn?”
“I’m off back home in Cheshire. This lot are heading down to Sheffield and the Peak, then over to North Wales”
Anth smiled at me, and it was indeed an open and warm one, as yet another decent human helped me cope with the world’s population of Nigels and Suleimans.
“What time are you all setting off?”
I shrugged.
“Probably about ten. Some crap driving to do, and I want to avoid any risk of hitting rush hour”
“Right. I’ll see you all about nine, then. Knock on the door, and I’ll shout yex all a family breakfast”
I started to argue, and he shook his head.
“Call it that ‘paying forward’ thing, Mike. I know you all live too far away to be regulars, like, but if you’re ever back this way, tell us in advance so I can get some of the right ice cream in for the lass”
So many good people; so, so lucky.
It was dark as we arrived at the cottage; I gathered our camping chairs and led the way up the lane until the few lights behind us were obscured, and the Milky Way emerged from obscurity as we settled ourselves on the footpath.
“Dad?”
“Yes, son?”
“There’s no such constellation as the Northern Cross. I looked it up”
I pointed straight up at Cygnus.
“And what’s that?”
“It’s a big cross…”
“So shush for a bit and watch”
“Dad, it’s OH!”
“It’s the Perseid meteor shower, son, not ‘OH’, as you seem to want to be pedantic”
Apart from several more murmurs of appreciation, we all sat in silence for an hour, except for Neil, who was doing something with a tripod every so often, and then, as the chill finally started to settle along with some dew, we headed back for our last night in Northumberland.