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.)

Day 1: Bowness to Carlisie

So here is the official blog/journal/story of our walk from coast to coast. I had intended to make and update this day by day but factoring in the long energy consuming days and an absence of wifi for two days it was an impractical, near impossible way of doing it. So that didn't work out, I'm now retrofitting each day as I ended up doing to the London To Paris bike ride a little while back. Which you can find here if it's of interest.

(This will be compiled off notes myself and mum made and a load of photos, with a slide show on the way including even more.)

 I met mum, dad and morph on the train to Newcastle on Friday August 19th, they hoped on board at Durham and we changed in Newcastle for the train to Carlisle. The train route gave some insight into the journey we'd be taking, as we would pass by the train line from time to time on our walk. 

I don't think I was as well prepared as I could be, and certainly would plan a little smarter before doing something like this again, but even so my schedule the week leading up to this wasn't ideal, with a huge music festival e previous weekend in the baking hot sun, to a quick scramble at home to cat sit at a friends house then get myself ready to head up north will all my stuff. Overal a week of general scrambling, sleep deprivation, intoxication, packing unpacking and packing again without a solid days pit stop in between. I say this now because on the train Up I was still feeling a little disoriented and nasious, and it might have left a little knock on effect that culminated on me a few days into the walk. Although that wasn't the soul cause of problems later on. 

We left our Carlisie BnB early Saturday morning (20th), getting the bus to Bowness on the west coast where the Hadrains walk starts. (Or for many people we saw:) finishes.

The rout starts across a rivers estuary from Scotland which I believe was the closest we'd get the the board during the whole route. That wall must have worked a treat in its hay day then. Seems very odd how the present day Scottish boarder is laid out, but the wall would need shifting north quite a bit if it was put back into service today. For those who don't know about Hadrians wall, you'd best look it up because we didn't have much time to take in the historic information on display. But in a nutshell Hadrian was kind of like Roman England's answer to Donald Trump, some point or other the Romans gave up trying to invade Scotland so this guy said we're going to build a wall and made good on his promis. I suppose ironically Trump has Scotish heratidge so it could have gone the other way around but anyway, Scotland's a cold place and Roman soldiers wore dresses, so it was never going to work out, a wall had to go up. Come to think of it Scots wore dresses to so there we are. Rome is bloody warm, and how many Italians do you know emergate to Scotland? Exactly. 

I'm sure there was some big Mel Gibson style scuffles with the arses and face paint to. Anyway, the fact is now Tourism keeps what's left of the wall safe for many years, but in terms of the walls functionality, English Heratidge could save a fortune on the walls upkeep if the SNP pulls another referendum out. 

Early on walking we saw a sign post with distances to a number of far away destinations, and a man sat oppostie in an old garage who offered to update the sign for us and asked where we where from, this obviously keeps him fairly busy with all the walkers who travel from all over the world to do this walk. He seemed to have a good gauge for geography and managed to think up fair decent approximations on the spot. For all I know it could be spot on, a note to self to check online.

It was quite a wet day, heavy showers on briefly but consistently wet enough to warrant waterproof trousers, which I hadn't worn. they have there pros and cons unless your wearing really good ones. But anyway more than enough rain to soak every inch of me long before then end. The estuary was a very flat route, made up of some small villages, and many sheep. The houses all looked very expensive, Carlisle being the closest city, almost an hour by bus but probably quicker in one of the many brand new Mercadies driving about. This days leg was quite road based, more so due to some temporary diversions sign posted from the official route due to flooding probably. We stopped at a nice pub for lunch and I made a slight change of clothes so my torso colour at least have some dryness for the second half. Carlisle was our end point for day one, with a stamping post at the leisure centre down the road from our BnB.

There's also this stamping system you can do, there's this little Hardrains walk fold out bit of card mapping the route with a bunch of checkpoints you can stamp accordingly as you pass them. It can be quite a good moral booster after a long trek as an easy way of visually marking your progress. And it adds an extra sense of legitimacy to show that you did it. (I leave an image on the last days entry)

 I defiantly should have worn thicker socks as my boots, by the time we approached the outskirts of Carlisie I'd got a couple of blisters where the tops of the boots rubbed. Some plasters and painkiller  made do though. It's just as well I didn't wear the boots again until the final day. So yeah, bring thick socks, and blister stickers! We came into Carlsie gradually by the river, all woodland up into a park near the city centre. But it ended up taking some trespassing to get there. My feet hurt a fair bit by now and wasn't remotely keep to take yet another path diversion signposted. So we took the risk and headed by the original path route to see how it went. It went ok, we passed around what we assumed was the case of the diversion which was a fence of section of path that had eroded towards the rivers edge.

We continued on passing allot of derelict buildings to our right, getting a peculiar feeling of the place. I clocked to men fishing the other side of the river, and some others guys with fishing gear walking our direction, the thought was to ask them for some directions, then suddenly we passed a police woman on our left, her back to us facing the river while speaking on her phone. Soon after two fishermen passed by us with a bit of distance, possibly aware of the police officer but just generally didn't seem they wanted to be seen. 

We ended up in the corner of a large sports field and fortunately being a city I was able to check google maps and find our route through. But after walking past some empty sports facility buildings possibly under refurbishment, we crossed a bridge with a large gated fence standing between us and the last mile of our days route. After a moment I looked at a gap in between the bridge structure and the fence and though about climbing through it. Not an ideal option but given e huge diversion we'd have to make otherwise it was best when we where so close, and evidently had already been trespassing anyway. The gate was clearly there to stop people getting in to were we where, where as we needed to get out. I climbed through easily enough, then mum passed me morph which was the trickiest bit. But it worked, mum then passed the bags over and followed. Just a few moments after we were all through and continued walking a police car drove up the empty road beside us, kept moving round and headed back where it came from. Great timing, a few moments earlier when we scrambled past a no go zone and that wouldn't have gone ideally. 

The last bit was a welcome change of terrain, just a straight path through a large park and a walkway under the road to the leisure/theartre. And an extra 10 or so minutes waiting in reception to get the maps stamped. The cafe there was closed so we waited behind someone amending some sort of gym membership until the receptionist called the duty manager down to unlock the cafe where said stamp was. Done! A short walk up the road to the BnB we'd stayed the night before with a good dinner and solid nights sleep to enjoy. A wet day but relatively manageable and mostly flat terrain. 

Intro

thought I'd take advantage of the 15 minutes of free wifi on the train up north to get this blog started. 

(So long as I can upload them,) I'll make daily updates on our journey, this afternoon I'm meeting mum and dad on the train and changing at Newcastle to get to the west coast where we'll be starting in the morning.