1. Jan's Hadrian's Wall Hike

In January 2019 my sister, brother and I decided that we’d like to go on a long-distance walk in the UK. My brother had an urge to walk right across the country, so after searching the map of England we discovered that we could accomplish this in the least distance on the Hadrian’s Wall walk. Unfortunately, my brother had to cancel because of a serious health diagnosis but he wanted us to go and be his eyes and ears. So, in September 2019 my sister and I landed in Newcastle Upon Tyne, made our way on public transport to Bowness on Solway on the west coast of England and began our adventure. We had paid a company to organise our nightly accommodation and luggage transfers so all we had to do was walk, carrying a day pack.

Most people complete the 135 km walk in six days, but we decided to take nine days so that we could take our time and see the sights along the way. We walked for a couple of days before we saw a very straight clump of rocks and realised that it was a remnant of Hadrian’s Wall! I must admit that neither of had done much background reading about Hadrian or his wall – we just wanted to walk! The wall is intact for only a short part of the walk. The rest of the time you are walking along the route of the original wall. The path and countryside were so varied. Some days the narrow gravelly track morphed into a lush sheep paddock, which became a country lane which headed right through a farmer’s yard and out into a mucky field and then onto a road through a village. We went up and down hills and across flat fields. We climbed up The Craggs and followed right beside Hadrian’s Wall for 2 1/2 days and walked past the famous tree in Sycamore Gap. There was mud and cow poo and other muck to walk through. There were beautiful vistas and streams and villages. We made lunches from bits and pieces we’d squandered from enormous breakfasts and ate them outside pubs or in sheep paddocks or on a village bench. We read all the information panels along the way and realised how little we knew compared to a lot of other people doing the walk. It was glorious. We often laughed till we cried. We enjoyed seeing the white acorn symbol on the signposts, relieved that we were going the right way.    

 

We appreciated people asking us if we were lost and then showing us how to get back on to the path. We lamented the lack of toilets along the way. We enjoyed our eclectic accommodation. 

We wondered why it took us so long to get going in the mornings. We wondered how (and why) some people did this walk in five days when it was taking us nine. As we walked further east, we came to more and more urban areas. We made a long detour to see the last visible remnants of Hadrian’s Wall beside a busy road in a noisy suburb and felt sad and gave it a hug as we said goodbye to it. We walked through the interesting city of Newcastle Upon Tyne but wished we were still back in the quiet, picturesque countryside of Cumbria and Northumberland. 

 

 On the 9th day we came to the end of the walk in a Roman fort in Wallsend. We were happy at our achievement but also sad that it was finished. But, in honour of our brother, we had decided to walk for one more day and make it to the other side of England. So, on day number 10 we walked another 10 km to the beach at South Shields on the east coast of England and threw in the 3 stones which we’d picked up from Bowness On Solway on the west coast of England. I would love to do another walk like this, so maybe when the Coronavirus pandemic is over my sister and brother and I can go on another one. I can hardly wait!