Dufton to Alston

This is the biggest day on the Pennine Way, over 30km and also the ascent over Cross Fell, the highest point on the Way - and an area notorious for poor weather and poor navigation. Only the day before we spoke to an older gentleman who managed to get himself on the wrong side to ascend, and then descending in the wrong direction! In clear weather! We spent the evening obsessing over the maps and route descriptions in the guidebooks, though frankly it looked pretty straightforward.
I don't know what we did to deserve such good luck, but the cloud clinging to Cross Fell cleared as we traversed the 3 fell summits leading up to it, and we greeted the top under blue skies, albeit with a pretty strong wind. As we came down the other side I could see how someone heading south could get onto the wrong route up, but I really don't see how you could then exit the summit in the wrong direction. I guess it's just a lesson in assumptions - check the compass if you're uncertain of your direction.
Then begins a slow descent into Garigill along the Old Corpse Road - where miners bodies used to be carried over the hills to be inhumed in a churchyard. We stopped in Greg's Hut - a basic 2 room shelter, although provided with a small coal fire. Here we chatted to two lovely ladies on the Pennine Journey (a different but sometimes overlapping route), who informed us that the Post Office shop looks closed but is in fact open, and well worth a chat with the proprietors, meanwhile the pub we had looked forward to is closed for change in ownership. The conversation then devolved into a political rant, thoroughly enjoyable, but a little over my head.
The Post Office shop did indeed have provisions for us, and a good old chat with yet another accent, and they were even able to do a pot of tea! We rested, attempting to convince our feet that they could manage the last 6km to Alston, which traversed along another pretty river. Occasionally the bed of the river jutted up to expose the bare rock slab, and provide mini falls, a geological feature I may have been more interested in if I was less sore. Oh well, another time.

Looking back towards Dufton

On the summit of Cross Fell

Greg's Hut

Upthrust rock riverbed