Day 2

(the following two paragraphs I wrote on day 3 or 4, being strapped for time and low on energy I never got to finish it then the whole blog just had to go on hold until the whole wall was done)

Right Off the bat I have to point out the place we've stayed the last two nights has had no phone signal or Internet. I skipped writing an entry the night prior to that in willowford farm as I figured I could just catch up on everything on our day off. But that day off I had no means of uploading anything. So there's allot to catch up on. I kept some basic key notes although yesterday (the day scheduled off of walking) I did not feel well, so there wouldn't have been much of an entry. 

I'm currently typing this out at The old Repeater Station in Grindon where we've been staying, so I don't expect to get to complete and upload this until the evening (Wednesday.) unfortunately the previous day's walk did not end well for me, I've done something bad to my knee, what started as the kind of typical leg pains you'd expect, escalated after hours of constant pressure. This converged with allot of nausea yesterday, which I can put down to my poor planing amongst other things, but I'll get into that later. Put simply I'm not walking today, so before any pedantic voices might chime in on me taking undue credit I have to confirm very bitterly and frustrated that I've already failed to complete the full walk as mum and morph have continued it today. Once I've updated the journal as far as I walked I'll then have to relay today's walk from mum when she arives. But even if I can rejoin the walk tomorrow, I can't amend missing a whole leg of the jorney. I screwed that all up royally, and only have hindsight to bare in mind if I attempt something like this again. 

(When I wrote that I was tiered and frustrated and it probably shows. But I thought I may aswell leave it in, It's a little glimpse into further on while I crack on now with day 2.)

We left Carlisle early morning and I'd got myself as long a sleep as I possibly could the nigh before to shake off the busy week, with less of a scramble sorting my bags out before leaving. We used a sherpa service so the morning routine required sorting through stuff and deciding what will and won't be needed for that days walk what with having a fairly small backpack for walking with. The forecast looked generally much better than the previous days weather, and it was quite a flat and easy going pace starting from the city beside the river through more parks and posh boroughs further into land.

According to my pedometer day two would be the longest distance of all the legs, clocking in over 20 miles. Baring in mind the first bit was flat, then only very gradually inclined up hill, with more hilly bits waiting for us once the small incline peeked out. This was first most noticeable in one of many cow fields, by the time we'd crossed that specific field its cow inhabitants we're all following us, this posed a recurring problem, having to be mindful with a dog, the many fields with cows and there calves who like to get a little to close when they notice. This isn't helped by the cows tendency to sit either on or beside the actual path. Most cases we just kept our distance in this particular occasion made it over an unofficial farm gate the other end and figured out our way back onto the main path after. On this farm premises there was a modern building conversion providing accommodation fro tourists, with some Hadrian related title in its name and statue of the guy himself looking very shredded.

The majority of days we where given pack lunches, so we continued on through the morning and midday until we'd find a good spot to sit down. Towards the end of the first half we started to see signs of Hadians wall like ridges in the ground and long raised sections, but up to that point no physical wall to speak off. This made good anticipation though, walkers we met the previous day had praised the views and landscape of that section of the route, (as they'd mostly come from there.)

Roughly around this time of the day more patches of small woodland appeared and we crossed over a river where morph enjoyed a bit of a swim besides an impressive waterfall.

After we'd stopped for lunch the terrain got progressively hillier, a couple of hours may have passed as I was keen to get a caffeine hit when I saw signs for a tea room in the next village we passed through. While in the cafe we met a couple with a small dog, they we're doing the walk the opposite way to us and warned about the larger cow fields we hadn't reached yet. So we were going to have to be extra vigilant. They also apparently said it'd taken them about six hours to get from our destination to there. Fortunately I didn't hear that bit, which is just aswell as it wasn't accurate. I hope I'm not being to generalised but people with dogs that small would more often than not be much slower walkers. 

By the time we left the little tea room we'd become more conscious of our timing, but as our terrain became gradually more isolated there wasn't the phone signal to contact anyone where we we're going and this wasn't complicated even further when we approach the aforementioned cow/calf field and tried to figure out if there was another way around it without making to much of a diversion. After asking some drivers passing by, the conclusion to that question was: no, not really. Beyond the heated debates about food production sustainability, the one thing that made me want to see a big reduction in beef and dairy consumption was the detours and diversion we had to make due to all the damn dog intolerant cattle. We walked round down the bottom of the hill and made our way back up a bigger one to re join the route in Banks. Quite relieved when arriving. Once at the top of the hill we more or less stayed at the higher altitude as remnants of the Roman wall first started to materialise besides us.

I made one more quick stop to finish what food I had in my bag on push on the last few miles, which where starting to feel the pinch. By this point walking down inclines became quite sour but ultimately it was all manageable and whatever strains I took on that day only subtly progressed into worse things on following days. The final bit was made up off slow ridges beside a round heard to a fort that was a close landmark to our B&B, every time you came up over a ridge expecting to see this fort on the horizon geography mocked you by giving you another ridge. We finally hit the fort and museum amongst an isolated patch of woodland and found the stamping point for the day. Then struggled for a little while figuring out where the destination was from there.

It was eventually determined we where to continue the path besides the wall, not long after the scenery changed from slightly desolate ridges to looking down upon a valley filled with trees, sheep fields and a river cutting across. It was a really nice space, inspite running out of steam fast it made for some nice sights and sounds as we crossed the river on an impressive bridge, one which according to a plaque was assembled else where then flown in on what looked like a pretty large military type helicopter. As you may see in the photos it's very distinctive. By this point it was apparent that our final destination for the day sat at the top of the hill still following the line of the Roman wall that cut across through the whole property. The sting of the final walk up was very worthwhile, the accommodation and everything about that spot probably ranks the best place we stayed on the trip. Although every place was unique and had allot to offer. The family run business which I believe was in parreoll with the sheep farming made for a cosy atmosphere that would seem a very pleasant and peaceful place to stay in any scenario but after finishing a walk like that all those aspects where amplified immensely. I remember a similar feeling on the Paris bike ride at one of our stop offs, something about the combination of all the requisite facilities tied in with old and earth aesthetics in an ambience of general countryside feels great to a holiday maker, but paradise to someone who got there by entirely physical means.

The family where very friendly, (and have continued to be very helpful as it transpired I left a jacket there, which They've arranged to post back to me) a young daughter and a dog, both pottering about a in the main grounds making the most of it. And the guy even drove us to the nearby village pub he also worked with, the food in which was superb. Though one heavy meal and some drink was enough to near knock me out. Then the guy drove us back.

There ends day 2. Probably the longest day to document as it was certainly the longest walk. But day 3 was still hands down the most challenging, I type this a week on and I'm still limping because of it. There mistakes easily learnt from but i'll dive into that for the next entry. (They won't be quite so long from here on.)