Getting Ready



Just over a week to go, and we're getting the blog together, ready to share all our adventures with you all when we finally set off next Monday, 18th September.

We're overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of everyone for this trip, and by your incredible generosity. Thank you all so much!

We'll do our best to get some brilliant photos to share and some stories to tell.




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Day 1 - Bowness on Solway to Carlisle

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 So today began with a taxi ride to Bowness on Solway where the walk starts - then we had to walk the 15 miles back to Carlisle plus another mile or so back to our B&B. On the way we walked alongside the Solway Firth (having carefully checked the tide tables as the road sometimes floods). We saw some sheep who seemed convinced they were alpacas; we had a great lunch at the Greyhound pub in Burgh-by-Sands (interesting fact - this is the place where King Edward I - known as Longshanks - died) (the town not the pub). The path continued alongside the River Eden, going through an underpass (which looked more like the canals in the centre of Birmingham) to cross the Carlisle Northern By Pass. Fortunately there was a route to scramble through without getting our feet wet! And one for the railway buffs - on the way into Carlisle we passed the bridge which used to take the Waverley Line over the Eden.  Two very tired walkers this evening with icepacks on Paul's ankle and Kate's kne...
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Day 5: Once Brewed to Chollerford

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  After 14 miles of hard walking we were very glad to arrive at our hotel just in time for the England Chile match!   Another good breakfast made even better by it being the first time Marmite had been an option. Worth an extra star for the hotel in itself I reckon! Shame the packed lunch they provided let them down (stale bread, tasteless cheese, and salt and vinegar crisps that tasted more like cheese and onion). The pub did brew their own beer though – I had an excellent bitter but wasn’t brave enough to try the salted caramel or the bubblegum sour beer options!    For the first 4 or 5 miles the weather was dreich – raining half the time and like walking through clouds for the rest. Which was a shame because I suspect this part of the walk has the best views. It also passes the most famous photo opportunity on the whole walk at sycamore gap (our header picture today). It was very up and down along a line of crags, walking alongside the remains of the wall just a c...
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Day 6: Chollerford to Heddon on the Wall

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As we left the hotel this morning we met the Hadrian’s Haul guy who has been moving our bags from place to place in his rather funky van…   ….before crossing the river to look back at the hotel where we had stayed – such a wonderful setting! Then on, up the hill on the far side of the river valley, and some wonderful views in the morning sunshine.   We didn’t see much of the Wall today (most of it was reduced to rubble to provide the hardcore for a road built along its route in the mid 1700s). However, one section which has survived shows that even the Romans sometimes changed their spec to cut costs – the initial width of the Wall was around 10 feet wide, but from this point onwards it was reduced to around 8 feet. You can see it in the photo below.   A little further on we passed a tiny church dedicated to St Oswald at Heavenfield. This was the site where Oswald, the heir to the Northumbrian throne, defeated the Mercian king Penda, and reunited the two halves of Northum...
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