Half Marathon walk to Shincliffe and back inc extra loops

Its been a real busy week one way or another and we have not been out for a good long walk for a while so this morning we had a plan. We needed a few things sorting in Durham so that was stage 1 of the walk. The sun was in and out and it was warm compared to yesterday mornings 7 degrees on the way to work with just a gentle breeze. Once we had sorted all the jobs in Durham it was stage 2 of the route over to Brambles coffee shop in Shincliffe Garden Centre. The Park runners were just about finished when we were walking around the river at Maiden Castle. It was a quick'ish pit stop in the coffee shop then stage 3 of the route was back up to Newton Hall and over the red brick bridge, by now the strong winds started blowing but it was mainly a tail wind. . This is where Angus headed home and me and Jane turned left and on to stage 4 of route over to Aykley heads etc. By the time we hit the edge of Newton Hall again it was over 12 miles so did a lap of the Carrs nature reserve etc and ended up doing nearly 13.5 miles in 3hrs 57mins.