Readers. She did it! And what is even better is that I managed to walk out half a mile and meet her and walk to the finish with her. Kath is awesome! 84 miles, 5 days, Hadrian’s Wall path done.
Hadrian’s Wall or not- Day 5
Tag: Hiking
Hadrian’s Wall or not -Day 4
My feet, or specifically my little toes are more painful than I ever imagined they could be. I maybe slept a couple of hours and it’s clear really that my Hadrian’s Wall walk adventure is over. We talked about what to do for the best for us both and agreed that Kath would walk on. Here she is setting off in Chollerford.
The B&B we stayed at was lovely and we got a lift down to Chesters Roman Fort this morning where Kath collected her next stamp. Then I hobbled with her to Chollerford where I’m now sitting in the cafe I was in yesterday sipping coffee. I’ll walk back to Chesters shortly, have a look around and then get the bus to Hexham.
Well Chesters was quite interesting for a short visit and is probably worth exploring more fully with functioning feet. I didn’t walk down to the bath house or round the whole site. I stuck my head in the museum- a room full of old stones basically and then I got on the bus.
I got off at Hexham bus station and walked very slowly towards the Abbey. I stopped at Boots and bought ibuprofen and then looked round the Abbey sitting a little while and lighting a candle for peace. Then I went for coffee.
The B&B had ‘strict’ check in times of between 4pm and 6pm. It said to call if you thought you’d be outside those times. I tried a few times to see how early I could get there and if Kath could get a lift from Heddon. No answer. So I decided that my feet were too sore to wander round Hexham and I was better off getting the train to Wylam where the B&B is.
Once in Wylam I called again and got through. They seemed slightly irritated even though I was careful to note that I knew it was early and I was just asking what was possible. She suggested we could check in at 3pm as they’d be back home then. Kath was walking into the village and I found a cafe for another coffee. Kath then discovered that there was a bus and jumped on that and I picked her up at the bus stop.
Her walk was mostly along the road and fairly uninspiring but I still enjoyed the photo updates
The B&B seems nice and we’ve rounded off the day with food at a local pub. In spite of trying to stay off my feet I’ve still done just over 14000 steps. Now for feet up, random tv and an early night.
Hadrian’s Wall Day 3
It didn’t go to plan. 7 miles in I couldn’t cope anymore. I’m not sure with what or why but I just couldn’t. The pain wasn’t really any worse than it had been all morning. It was there as a constant but not worse. The terrain was much more challenging but I knew it was going to be hard. I was ok for a little while and then confidence on any ascent and descent vanished- tricky when most of the route is up or down. Eventually brain and body said ‘nope, not today’. There were another 2 miles to navigate before a way off. We agreed Kath would carry on and I would head to the Sill and figure things out from there. So at 9 miles we split and I walked slowly down the road.
Anyway, I’m disappointed and cross and sad and sore and need time to process. I found some joy in the day, a lovely scenic bus ride, people who helped, a room with a bath…
We re- asses tomorrow.
Hadrian’s Wall Day 2 – Carlisle to Gilsland
Just a very quick post because I’m tired and need to process today. We left Howard Lodge in Carlisle just after 8 am after an average breakfast but nice overall stay.
Today’s route was varied, more undulating than yesterday and actually a lovely route.
There were some muddy bits and some of the road sections were actually welcome after having spent a chunk of time thinking carefully about where to put our feet.
We had the path completely to ourselves for the first 5.5 miles and after that we met others coming in the opposite direction every couple of miles or so.
My feet are sore. The walking shoes were still soaking wet so I obviously wore the trail running shoes. They’re actually much better and fabulous in mud but they are quite tight. Those pressure points already tender got worse and I was in low level pain from early on. facilities are basically non existent so eventually we had a wild wee.
The sunshine was lovely and it was nice not to be rained on! But I started flagging quite early. We decided to push on to 10 miles before lunch. I sort of made it but I was struggling. We sat by the roadside and had some pasta we’d bought from M&S. I struggled to get going again and in Walton we thought we’d stop at the tea room for coffee. We didn’t have coffee because we couldn’t get served as the guy running it seemed more interested in chatting to locals. He seemed cross that we left with me just having had a pee but in all the time it took he hadn’t taken an order from Kath.
We saw the first bits of stone wall today. It’s quite a staggering wall and must have been tea imposing in its time.
Around 14 ish miles I lost the plot. Everything seems to hurt worse. There was a narrow muddy section that just made feet and hips throb with every step. I had a little cry. I got in my head. It definitely felt like I had taken on too much. I was cross that I didn’t feel better. After all we were just walking and not walking fast and the terrain was mostly fine and while there had been a hill or two it really wasn’t a strenuous route.
So today has been tough. Dacre House, our B&B is really nice and I am happy to just be able to rest. My feet are really tender, my little toes are blistered to hell and let’s just not talk about the chafing along the knicker line – let’s just say I screamed in the shower and Kath’s response to seeing it was ‘fucking hell that’s horrendous’. Vaseline has been liberally applied, the toe blisters popped and I’m about to do some stretches and then sleep.
Tomorrow is another long day. It has much more up in it and is described as moderate to strenuous. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But I want to.
Hadrian’ Wall Day 1: Bowness-on-Solway to Carlisle
We are tucked up in our Bed and Breakfast in Carlisle after a good day getting wet through walking in the rain. Our adventure started yesterday with a train journey from Keighley to Carlisle. This includes the Settle to Carlisle line which is a stunning route. From Carlisle we got a taxi out to our B&B – basically the route we’d be walking back today.
I’ll review the accommodation separately on Trip Advisor but Bowness House Farm, now Hunters Leisure complex or something like that was fine. Not luxury and with interesting decor (diamanté encrusted toilet roll holder anyone?) and average food but fine. After a little stretch of legs on the beach we ate and then settled in.
This morning the earliest we could have breakfast was 8am so that’s what we did. Then we left our bags ready to be picked up and transported on to the next B&B and off we went. We’d spoken to a guy at breakfast who had just finished the walk the other way had described our Day 1 as boring. it was anything but!
After the obligatory start selfie and stamp in our Hadrian’s Wall passports we made our way out of the village and along the road for a bit. The Solway Firth is quite spectacular really and we paused every now and again to listen to curlews and oyster catchers. We soon picked up the off road path for a bit before making our way past a Holiday park and along a lane. A little stretch along and we stopped to put our rain jackets on. And we didn’t take them off again all day.
A brief nod to Drumburgh Castle and we were on the Burgh Marshes. That’s a roughly 3 mile stretch which we walked part on the road and part up on the grassy mound. We could still hear and see curlews and lapwings. Once we crossed the cattle grid at the end of the marshes, we were heading into Burgh-by-Sands. Our taxi driver had told us that the Pub there was pretty much the only thing open for refreshments along the route and that it opened at 12. It was only 11.30 so no coffee and pee stop. It was raining quite heavily and as we continued on I got completely drenched by a car driving through a puddle. I lost my sense of humour for a few minutes and am marched on with soggy knickers.
We had been leapfrogging a woman walking on her own and she stopped at a portaloo by the village green and we decided to do the same. Feeling more comfortable we continued on with a brief stop to look at St Michael’s church. After that we walked along a few fields navigating the cows and sheep. We arrived in Beaumont with St Mary’s church sitting sort of above us on the hill and a welcome look bench round a tree inviting us to pause for a bite to eat. In addition there was a coffee trailer.
We had our packed lunch and coffee, briefly chatted to two women also walking the wall and then set off again. More fields, more cows and lots more kissing gates as we made our way alongside the river Eden into Carlisle. We walked all the way round the Sands Centre to find the entrance so we could stamp our passports. We saw the two women there again after having leapfrogged each other a couple of times. We realised we didn’t actually have to go all the way round and used a back exit to get us back on the path.
Technically the route for today was complete just before the Sands Centre but we decided to add a bit of tomorrow’s route on as we would need to walk to the B&B anyway and continuing on the path was really only marginally further. I jumped straight into the shower to get the worst of the mud off legs (I’d been wearing 3/4 length pants) and we rested a little before going for food in town. We went to Franco’s. Good pasta and pizza and the best espresso I’ve hard in a while!
So that’s what we did. About 17 miles all in. But how did I feel. My shoes aren’t quite right. They are quite hard/stiff and then they got wet. So my feet felt quite tender from quite early on. I’m considering my trail running shoes for tomorrow but they are quite tight so not sure yet. I got in my head every now and again. Early on I had a panic about whether I could do this and there were bits where I was anxious – some stone flag steps, fields full of cows, significant mud… but I’m fine. I’m tired because I’m not fit and my feet are a bit sore but it’s all good and tomorrow looks like it might be drier – which would be lovely!
really (not) a runner 