Chollerford to Once Brewed

Today was my last segment on the wall. I have been hiking west to east but decided today to take the bus to Chollerford and hike back which is east to west. The buses run every 2 hours so I was worried that if I hiked to Chollerford that I may have had a long wait. The initial drawback was that I wouldn't be able to start my hike back until 1045 which is late for me. It was 15k back some up and down the sils but I thought I would make it in about 4 hours. What I didn't count on was a 50 kmph constant headwind. It tired me out and slowed me down considerably. It took me 6.5 hours to make it back to Once Brewed and was I ever tired when I got back. There were also some heavy rain showers such that I had to wear my rain pants all day. I also got a little patched out on the bus ride as it seemed longer than I thought it should have been. I asked the driver if we had gone past my stop it was so far. I guess I underestimated how far one can walk in a day. The best part of the hike was walking up and down the Sils again. Not only were the views spectacular but the wall seemed best preserved up on the Sils. It helped one imagine what the wall had looked back in 122AD. At Housesteads, an artist had used scaffolding to create the appearance of a Roman gate and then covered it in quotations. It looked a little out of place but certainly gave one the perspective on the size of the structure. I also walked north of the wall at one point to get the perspective of the Scots who may have wanted to attack the wall. Mr TPHM was a little disgruntled that I wasn't taking him out for photos but I was worried he would blow away. We got a final photo of us on our completion of the segment and he seemed quite happy. Tomorrow we are off to Durham.Read more