Durham Dales Challenge - Saturday 17th June 2023

I am the chair of the Northumbria Long Distance Walker’s Association. As well as a regular walking programme we organise our annual flagship event; the Durham Dales Challenge. 2023 will be the 31st staging of this event, which will take place on Saturday 17th June. The event offers two routes of 14 or 30 miles. The challenge is purely to complete either of the routes in the allowed time, 12 hours for the 30 mile route, 9 hours for the 14 mile route. It is not a race, rather a personal challenge. 

The location for the event is the magnificent Weardale and Teesdale. Beautiful stone built towns and villages, verdant valleys, high moorland and forest offer the walkers and runners a splendid day out in the Durham Dales. Both routes start at Wolsingham DL13 3AN with the longer 30 mile route going to Middleton in Teesdale via Hamsterley Forest and then returning via Bollihope and River Wear. The shorter route of 14 miles traverses Pikestone Fell and returns via Bollihope and River Wear.  We provide refreshments at checkpoints and the finish.

I am hoping some of your members may be interested in our event which does incur a small cost to each entrant of £15 for a LDWA member and £20 for non-members.  Entry is remarkably easy using the online SI Entries site: -

www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?elid=Y&event_id=10643
 
Our regular walking programme aims to organise about two walks a month ranging from 15 to 25 miles in length, over the moorland, rural or coastal areas. Each walk in our programme has a leader, who selects and plans the route, and the walks are undertaken at a reasonable and sociable pace to accommodate people of varying abilities; as guidance we walk at approximately 2.5 miles per hour. For more information about the Long Distance Walkers Association itself, both national and local, please see the websites: -

​LDWA.ORG.UK/NORTHUMBRIA
LDWA.ORG.UK/