Northumberland

A successful funny day. We walked almost 18 kms- and these are fairly tough kms. The path is signed, with the very discreet acorns, and sometimes a signpost with Hadrian’s Wall path engraved in very old wood, almost rotten and falling apart...but it is very easy to go off track. So it is better than the Coast to Coast experience, but not without a bit of stress, and today I have to say that at the last 2 miles we admitted defeat and descended to the road visible beneath us and walked the last 800 metres or so to our destination!

But we had fun. Set off at about 9.15 - cloudy, no rain - and all went well. More of the beautiful countryside that we have been accustomed to. We did make a small mistake quite early, but easily got back on track and walked along another section of Wall, and up quite a climb of stone steps, with a stunning view at the top. The trouble is that you follow along fine, then go over a stile or a gate to the next field and you really have no indication where to go. There is no definite track, just grass with no direction, and it is easy to pick the wrong way. And these are HUGE fields, many acres, and there aren’t so many people that you can follow along. Sometimes it is obvious and you can see a stile or gate or signpost in the distance, but not always.

So we muddled along, mostly on track, and avoiding as much mud and bog as we could, loving the scenery and views, and the Roman bits that are there. Quite a lot of wall - more than I had expected - and all quite amazing. Every now and then it rained slightly - enough to put on coats, but never lasted long, and was sometimes even sunny.

By the end, when we knew we were close we just couldn’t find the right way. We had followed some bad advice to follow an easy low track rather than the high one which would have been correct. She had said it would all lead to the right place...but it didn’t, for us anyway, and we muddled along high in the hills, but not as high as the wall, and finally gave up and descended to the road. That was in itself extremely difficult as it was uneven with tufts of long grass and holes, and when we reached the bottom of course we had to cross a seriously boggy patch. Later looking at the map we found that that area was called the East Bog! However we made it to the road, and found our accommodation right on that road, except that we approached it from the other direction. So in a way we had taken a short cut! Anyway, it was an adventure and our B and B tonight is another lovely place and we stay here for 2 nights, as tomorrow is a sort of rest day. Not really, as the plan is to do a 15 km walk round a lot of Roman ruins and museums near here that are not on the trail. But we are sort of free to do what we like in our own time.

So tonight we went for dinner at the pub down the road, the Twice Brewed Inn. Good food and atmosphere, and we’ll go there again tomorrow night. The other end of this village is called Once Brewed! Crazy! Anyway, all good.Read more