Thursday

Chollerford to Girlsend – 20 miles

Day Three: “the plan” Check out of the City based YHA Hostel by 0800. Drive both cars out of Newcastle parking one in Girlsend and the other at the starting point at the Hotel in Chollerford.

Walk the days distance, making sure that all opportunities are taken to look at the Wall, pictures at the peak of the whole wall, “Steel Rig”. Lunch in the quarry where the stone for the wall came from, and then beer or two in the town called, Girlsend.

Day three’s location is possible the most dramatic. Dramatic in the way of seeing the Wall, the physical heights they went to build it. If the weather is good with clear visibility you will be able see for miles and miles.

You pass two locations of Roman interest, Chesters and Housesteads fortress. Plus the iconic Sycamore Tree, which sadly was felled in the months to follow my adventure.

Ending up in small town that has additional historic stories that include rail transport.

Day Three; The reality!

On day one, we had to reschedule the entire trip, to accommodate the change in the number of cars. We also had two other factors that overshowed the transport. These factors are best described as our ‘Ability’.

Ability is not just about your wellbeing but also your physical body changes, the changes that are not physical, and if, they are not respected they can simple put you on your backside and sat in front of a TV with a blanket wrapped around you.

Newcastle Hostel, Helen and I, packed up our belongings, did that idiot check of the room and left, aiming for the lift. True to form, Helen arrived at the hostel room doorway with the evacuation chair for her last giggle with the Personal Evacuation Plan (PEP) joke.

The PEP had been created and written by the Hostel staff on night one, please click back to that page. #BlessHer

We made one last visit to the local Greggs, bought enough food the day ahead, jumped into the car.

The new plan: Check out, travel to the next Hostel, “The Sill”, then jump on the first bus to Chollerford and walk as far as we could, baring in mind the Bus A121 ended at 1800.

The intention was to still take onboard the sights, enjoy the history and for me, I would still ‘natter’ to as many people as I could.

Walking a national trail, if you maintain a daily plod, in the same direction, you will meet other people on the walk, walking the path their way. Meeting them, creates these great memories and definitely embeds the tails you will tell for rest of your life.

The YHA The Sill, the best way to describe this hostel is to throw away those opinions of hostels from the 80’s.

It has plenty of space, amply sized rooms and communal shower rooms like nothing else I have experienced. A boot room, washing machines and new kitchen. Plus, a communal space with board games and a tv.

The other amazing plus, it is next one the UK’s best pubs and micro brewery’s, Once Brewed.

We parked Helens car and jumped on to the 10 am bus heading towards the days starting point. We were joined by several other explorers and the ‘Natter’ started. There was an American couple that were exploring the Roman history and got off at the same stop as us. We would meet them again later, in the brewery.

Helen and I started off, we had lightened her rucksack to a minimum. We knew the direction, simple one foot in front of the other keeping Scotland to the right. The weather, had changed a great deal from the previous days. It was actually raining, a light drizzle, with diminishing visibility.

Helen’s health, I have not yet mentioned this but wish to start here. When we first walked the wall, in 2016, we walked East to West, she had to pull of the expedition at the same point were walking on his day.

This time, we are walking West to East to encourage the completion and for me, to gain a different perspective.

The reason Helen had previously left the adventure, was due to blood poisoning brought on from blisters.

The infection had risen from the balls of her feet and hit her carve mussel. This had happened within a few hours, and if it wasn’t for Justin, one of the fellow adventurers she would of carried on walking. She could of ended up with sepsis the possibility of a life changing operation.

Justin, arranged for a taxi to take her from the road side and go straight to hospital.

She did recover, but was unable to join us until the last day, the last few miles as we walked into Wallsend.

This had made this day, our day three, an emotional one and in a very positive way.

As we walked passed the section, she did stop, shed a tear in memory of the pain and discomfort.

Part of her thought process was to state that she had, had enough and would happily leave the walk.

In that moment she had completed the walk, she had walked the wall’s path from one end to the other.

I did stop and listen, I showed compassion and simple said. If you leave, I have to leave.

The night before over a call, Mrs I’ had given me some wise words. Her concern was towards my health and safety. She worries that I will hurt myself because of my confidence to carry on, even though I am blind! I would be a solo walker.

She said a couple of times,

‘If Helen drops out you do!’

Basically Helen could not drop out, I was frustrated that this was an option, however, I would say I am compassionate enough to respect her feelings.

We had a couple of hours, where she plodded forward, from that moment of reaching the point of completion. The “Pace” was averaging between 1 and 2 miles an hour!