Wednesday

Heddon on the Wall to Chollerford 15 Miles

The plan: wake up, pack a bag, leave the room and head downstairs for a buffet style breakfast and leave the City by 0830.

Minutes away from the hostel are several bakeries and a good old Greggs. Ideal for loading the car and our bags with snacks and lunch.

Take one car to the end of the previous days location, Heddon-on-the-Wall. Knowing that at the end location Chollerford, has a bus, once an hour up until 1900.

This would take us back to the start at Heddon-on-Wall and the car back to Newcastle. This days walk, was mainly flat with a fantastic boozer, called Robin Hood. My plan, have soup and beer.

The day ends at a Hotel, the same hotel that the previous time, we had stopped and sat in the spar, drinking gin and tonics. The bus stops outside, the alternative would of been to arrange a taxi. Either way this is a great days plodding.

What a distance

The Reality: day two, wake up before 0530 pack a bag with as many snacks and drinks as possible, I had popped into an Tesco’s express the evening before, prior to going to the family room.

When we left the rather large family room I tried to avoid Helen’s comments on the Personal Evacuation Plan. Obviously failed!

Sort the parking on the car and start plodding out of the epic city. Attempting to achieve all this before 6 am.

We were aware that we had to reshuffle the day two’s walk, to reach the Bowness-on-Sea by Saturday. Or drop some sections, and not complete the walk from East to West.

We needed to add the missed distance from day one to todays walk, approximately 12 miles. I was also aware that by adding the extra distance we would add hours of walking, plus increase the 15 miles to a massive 27 mile walk, this is nearly 50 kilometres. I think I managed to avoid highlighting this to Helen, the distance is achievable the issue is purely with how do we get back to the Hostel. Especially if it was after dark.

We were genuinely looking forward to the walk, Helen, had not completed this section.

On the previous attempt, I had organised the walk, West to East and with 7 other people. Helen, gained an injury and had no choice but to pull out at a place called Chester’s.

The missed section would be our first three days, this added to the emotions and relief in completing the section.

A Roman Marathon

We left the hostel by 0630, with two packed day bags and with only one mention of my PEP.

In my head, I thought if we could leave on an empty stomach the push through the City, when the hunger hit it would encourage us to aim for food and “liquid on route”. This was going to be at Heddon-on-the-Wall. The planned end for day one. The distance was around 10 to 12 miles.

Within an hour we were leaving the side of the Rive Tyne, to walk along the roadside and up and out of the City.

0800: we had arrived at our first resting spot. Jump into our food bags that I had bought the evening before.

The spot was a beautiful place that turned out to be an old battle ground. Whilst I read the local information boards, Helen started, what became a regular ritual. She would remove, her boots and socks and apply lotions and blister platers as her feet started to hurt. I will explain more in day three’s story.

“The Wall” is stocked with loads of history and battlements and plenty of stones buildings. Yet, not much in the way of the actual Hadrians wall.

The local settlements had started from the Romans and after they left, or what I believe happened, they became the first of the UK refuges. The so called wall builders, didn’t go back to their countries and made their claims on the land.

However, poetical, the surrounding buildings were made of the original stones that had been used to create the wall.

0945: Our first stop was at Heddon-on-the- Wall, a local petrol garage, with a large selection of food for walkers. Plus a welcomed sight of a clean toilet.

I re-stocked up on chocolate, drinks and what can only be described as a cake made from potatoes!

At this stage of the walk, I felt confident that we would reach our goal and catch the last bus back into Newcastle. Remember the bus leaves the Villiage at 1900.

1300: we wondered into our first pub of the day, the aptly named “Robin Hood”. Timed perfectly for a hot meal and my first “beer whilst walking”.

The liquid painkiller, helped me num the brain anxiety from over thinking and worrying about the distance ahead. We had been travelling for about 8 hours and still had about 5 hours or so to go!

Remember the last bus leaves the Villiage at 1900.

Our pace was reasonable, and feet were not too painful or loaded with blisters.

Over the rest of the week, the word Pace was going to become our nemesis.

I like to plod at a pace between 4 and 6 kilometres per hour, avoid too many long stops and avoid walking at the peak of the heat of the summers day.

At that moment, we were managing 4 k per hour with 10 to 20 minutes break, every 90 minuets.

The weather was starting to heat up, we could see for miles and watch the sunrise heat up the ground. This is one of the fastest parts of the walk, sheer beautiful and breathtaking views.

The next section, was going to be the start of the breaking point of my fellow adventure Helen.

The terrain, had been generally, up to now. We had been mainly climbing upwards from sea level, up to the second highest point of the stretch of England.

The Wall, climbs up from sea level from the East and West of England to the peak at Steel Rig. I aimed to be at the top of Steel Rig on our third day of walking. I could then repeatedly say, “it’s all down hill from here.” Use this as a positive statement.

Walking out of Heddon-on-Wall, we started plodding down an extremely long, straight section of a Roman road, aptly called Military Road.

The only change was the odd diversion to the other side of the road. We met a few plodders and politely had a conversation, “where are you walking too today” or “is this your first time”. As you can imagine, I love a good natter.

1630: we are heading, mentally, downwards and feeling the effects of travelling for nearly 12 hours.

We had slowed our pace to between 2 and 3 k per hour and yet still not met any signs of Hadrians Wall.

“Was the actual wall a myth?”

Helen had reached her limits and basically sat on a bench and could not move. Her mental state had literally hit a wall.

Walking long distances plays games with your mental state as well as bruising the souls of your feet.

I would imagine solo walkers have an even harder time. I would be fine for a day or so, but not for any longer.

In my head, I was for some reason panicking about missing the last bus and not being able to get back into Newcastle.

Remember the bus leaves the Villiage at 1900.

1800:We had about 3 kilometres left, no options of a short cut or flagging a black cab.

At this stage, we entered a wooded area, met a ginormous section of the wall. Over shadowed by an equally huge Sycamore Tree.

This caused us to stop, take the obligatory photo and start to feel that we had met with the reason why we were walking along a 90 mile trail.

Our moral, picked up although my fellow plodder, Helen, would of quite easily given up.

We had no choice but to keep walking. With our bags on our backs, running low on food and drinks, I had to push for gold.

The next section, was definitely the hardest of the week, my fellow walker’s, feet had started to hurt, blistered and bruised. The mental state was questionable, even my “natter” had reached the point of “shut up” .

1845: with less than I kilometre to go. We pushed forward. With me at the front, carrying extra weight from the content of Helen’s bag, she had brought an extra pair of shoes. I will explain more on day three story.

We arrived at the destination, a hotel, warm and full of other walkers. It had a swimming pool and loads of creature comforts. Yet, we didn’t have any of our swimming kit, I had thought of the option to go in my pants.

We had missed the last bus, by 20 minutes!

1920: the last kilometre had taken us nearly an hour, Helen had gone past the “it’s just one foot in front of the other”.

The hotel receptionist called for a taxi and invited us to the bar to sit and wait.

At the bar, we met some of the people that had walked passed us earlier in the day.

That was the best gin and tonic and packet of nuts I had ever had. The chance to sit down was amazing, yet the distance was staggering and one, until Helen reads this, she was not aware of.

The taxi back was on a budget, he took us to the nearest town where we caught a bus into Newcastle. For some mental reason, the taxis charge is equated by time and not distance.

He drove down the Military Road, which had taken us nearly 6 hours to walk, was driven, at speed within 30 minutes!

I have never been so deflated about being in a car for years, possible the last time was in the early 80’s on my way back from a family holiday in Eastbourne. That holiday was one I could never forget!

2030: We are back in Newcastle, been and visited a burger bar, ate a bugger and returned to the hostel.

I had a couple beers with the staff whilst my Helen went to the room to sort out the blisters and bruised feet.

The staff, were very genuine and friendly, they listened to me “natter” and start to relate the days events.

We had been walking, well travelling for over 13 hours, managed a staggering 27 miles. Missed our last bus and only had two beers!

Day three had to get better, we had caught up on the missed distances and the weather was going to be cooler!

Day two, was one full of memories what an epic walk, a plod through some stunning scenery. We met some interesting people and sat in a taxi that was keen to save us money.