We went to Gibside at the beginning of October; the weather was still
quite pleasant so we decided to do one of the longer walks. (There were 4 to
choose from.) To get in is about £9, so not too expensive and, once inside we
headed off on our walk, beginning with the gardens. There were lots of little
apple trees and such like – I was on the lookout for more conkers after an
incident with a spider earlier in the week. I took some photos in the orangery,
then we stopped off at the stables.
After a brief pit-stop we trekked up through the woods, breaking off
from the other routes so it was a bit quieter.
There were cows in the next field which I was a bit wary of – one walked
in front of us, blocking our way! After navigating past the cows, we crossed a
stile, headed along a quiet road, before re-entering the woods. I made the most
of the quiet and took some photos and found some chestnuts. I remember seeing
roasted chestnuts at the Christmas Markets last year but I’ve never actually
tried them!
At the end of the forest route Liberty’s Column came into view; we made
our way over, passing the ‘Octagon Lake’ on the way. There were only a few
people at the monument when we arrived so I could take as many photos as I
liked. There was an avenue of trees towards the end of the walk but they were
nearly all oak trees so I gave up looking for conkers. We had a quick look
around the markets that were on before we headed for the exit. As we were
leaving we found a lone conker tree - but I only managed to get one as they
were all still high up on the tree. It's currently sitting on my mantelpiece at
home to scare away spiders.
