Titanium Dude’s Hadrian’s Wall Walk

 
I’ve mentioned before, somewhere on this blog (you’ll have to look it up yourselves if you’re that interested) about  how involvement in the TGO Challenge improves the quality and quantity of  a chap’s walking companions.
And so it was with this little expedition. Titanium Dude aka Paddy Burrows, TGO Challenger and yet another Fight Club Hiker, once banned from Trail’s Live for the Outdoors forum – a status which many may well envy…) – announced his intention to walk the Hadrian’s Wall LDP on the Peaceful Hiker Forum and , me, having absolutely nothing better to do, asked to join him for a day or so.

And Lo! it came to pass that I paid the £3 parking fee at Housesteads Roman Fort and wandered Eastwards along the wall in the calculated belief that at some point T Dude would be met coming the other way.
It was sometime after lunch that I arrived at Brocolitia, (site of the temple of Dave Mithras, bull killer and general all-round good-guy as far as Roman Gods is concerned) where there’s a chap selling coffee from the back of a small van in the well preserved Roman Pay and Display Car Park

There, I fuelled my addiction to tasty caffeine and, sure enough, a few minutes later T Dude turned up. We had another coffee and marched off towards Carlisle.
The weather wasn’t great it has to be said – very humid and spitty and the local black flies were, it would seem, on their holidays too.

After trespassing inside Houseteads Fort, and, by using the lie of the land and the walls of a granary, we managed to avoid two individuals in high vis jackets who looked as though they might want to inspect the tickets we hadn’t bought – so we nipped out of the North gate and traversed the outside of the wall to rejoin the path. I noticed that one of the main defences to Houseteads was a sign which said that admission charges applied. This was found to be ineffective, however due to the fact that it wasn’t written in proto-Welsh and the locals weren’t up to reading or obeying rules like that. In fact, we just nipped over the fence. Paddy claimed not to have seen the sign….

A short distance later, i left Paddy to walk on to Winshields Farm whilst I retraced in heavy rain to retrieve the knipemobile from the car park.
We met later on the campsite and withdrew strategically to the Twice Brewed pub for our tea and some beer.
Later, there was snoring and a rude awakening from heavy early morning rain coming through the tent door that I seem to have forgotten to close.

The farm provided breakfast and once more we headed off towards the Solway. More humid stuff – more showers – more blackflies and a few midges later and with lots of up and down work – we eventually arrived at Birdoswald where, after tea in ther cafe, Paddy continued towards Walton and I explored a deep gill to kill time till the bus came.
The AD122 whisked me back to Twice Brewed for the princely sum of £3.80. This is a great bus service by the way – the buses are new since last year and, in theory you could walk the wall by staying in, say, Hexham and just using public transport to return to bas eat the end of each day.

Anyway, I trust Paddy is yet still forging Westwards – he didn’t seem to be having any problems with the route or the walking, so , all things being equal (which they never are, actually…) – its a fair bet he’ll arrive at Bowness on time and with no significant damage.
I have just the one day off to dry my tent, then I’m off again on a little worrif resolution…..
For those intent on just sampling Hadrian’s Wall for a couple of days, the best bit is between Chesters and Birdoswald – in my ‘umble…..
Altogether, I walked 25 miles with 3100 feet up uphill.

Hadrians Wall Day 6 Carlisle to Bowness on Solway

After earning some good boy points by painting things, Maggie suggested that she’d like to visit her pal in Carlisle and then go shopping and if I wanted, she’d drop me off in Carlisle and pick me up again at the end.
So, she left me at the Sands Centre in Carlisle and I marched manfully Eastwards towards the final end (or the start, perhaps) of Hadrians Wall
This last section is reasonably pleasant and has at least three pubs, so its civilised too, if a bit hazy…
There’s a riverside path, then some cow fields with cows, a long, straight road with signposts whoch tell you how deep the water is when the tide comes in (3 feet at the most – so you shouldn’t drown) – and then, that’s basically it. You’re at the end with a pint of mild in your hand.
The locals are remarkably friendly, and quite a few had a nice greeting or a joke about the summer (it finally arrived at about 1:00 pm today). This must be a happy locality. The Solway coast is certainly a bit stark and beautiful. But there’s a certain relaxed sort atmosphere about the villages. You won’t get mugged here.
And the hedgerows are now absolutely heaving with berries and fruit of all kinds.
So I had a healthy, grazing sort of walk till I got to the Greyhound at Burgh by Sands where I spoiled it all by drinking several foaming pints of Black Sheep.
Outside the boozah, there were five men from Kent and a statue of Edward I with a sword. He died near here, apparently, just on his way to hammer the Scots once again, but leaving the job to his foppish son Edward II who buggerred it all up at Bannockburn and then, due to some other buggerry, was murdered with a red hot poker in exactly the place you don’t want a red hot poker.
None of this is at all relevant to this walk.
Maggie appeared just before Bowness on Solway and we went off to caldbeck for a nice dinner at the pub there.
And now we’re home.
14 miles and virtually no ascent at all – it’s a bit rolling at the most and often quite, quite flat.

So that’s Hadrians Wall eh? Two flat bits and a bumpy bit in the middle. It’s a good walk. Its very popular. You should enjoy it. Go do it. Buy the maps now and larn Geordie.

Anybody know what the mushroom is by the way?

Hadrans Wall day 5 Birdoswald to Carlisle

I think that Cumbria is in the North-West of England. Carlisle is, surely, a North-Western city. So, when the weatherman said it will be wet in North-east England, it could be argued that in Cumbria, there wouldn’t be so much rain.
Apparently not. I set off from Birdoswald at 9:00 am in chucking rain and walked for the next five and a half hours in chucking rain, and a further hour in drizzle.
A Kiwi in an unusual jacket and hat I met along the way suggested that England wouldn’t be so nice and green but for the rain. And, as for the mud? Mud? You’ve seen nothing like the mud we’ve got 176 degrees South of here, mate..
As the day continued, the mud got muddier and the fields got more flooded. In parts they were quite shallow – only a few inches. In others, things were getting serious for the worms. I considered taking off my boots and socks before they wetted out completely. Maybe I should have done. Bare feet could well have been just the thing.
Its very soft and sloppy.
I pressed ever Westwards towards the brightening sky. It was just a different colour of rain. I sheltered in a sort of garden hut in a garden at Haytongate. I made a cup of tea, considered the mars bars too expensive at a quid a go and put my money for the tea in the honesty box. I read the messages on the wall. The emperor Hadrian was, apparently complaining about the state we’d left his wall in, and various peope said thanks for the tea… Later, there was a wooden box in a grassy (slightly underwater) lane. Inside the box there were sweeties and crisps and a little dish to put your money in.
It’s a good idea, this, provided nobody nicks anything.
Was the bar at the closed pub in Walltown really an “honesty bar”. I didn’t have time to find out, I had to keep going towards Carlisle and the last bus to Birdoswald. It would be an expensive bus-miss either in terms of extra walking effort or yer actual money.
Eventually, after 18 miles of mud and rain and Himalayan balsam by the riverside – I arrived in Carlisle – and promptly got lost, passing Debenhams three times from different directions.
I caught the AD122 bus back to Birdoswald, though, with 20 minutes to spare. Possibly a close run thing.
Rain? Don’t talk to me about rain….
18 and a half miles and just 700 feet of climbing.
Probably a very nice walk on a sunny day in early September. The brambles are fruiting and the elderberries will be ready in a week or so – so if you want to make wine, there’s absolutely loads of ‘em.
And there’s sloes too….
And very depressed-looking cattle and sheep.
But what of the route – well, it’s easy again. Very easy walking, in fact. Not much uphill at all either, and its still well waymarked. And, apart from the honesty tuck shops, there’s a few pubs/hotels and a farm near Crosby on Eden which does snacks.
The archaeology gradually disappear to just a flooded ditch (maybe not always flooded!) – and then there’s a bit of lane walking, then some nice riverside paths which take the walker into Carlisle without seeing much of the city. It’s a short trundle into the City Centre.
Nearly finished this – just 14 miles to go.

Hadrians Wall day 2 Heddon to MC23B

This was day 2 of the Hadrians Wall series. Day 1 isback on 15 July 2009 if anybody wants to refer to that one. (Actually, it was two….)
Anyway, I drove to Corbridge and abandoned the venerable knipemobile in the free car park by the river and caught the 685 bus to Heddon on the Wall (which is where I finished day 1).
The 685 bus is proving to be very useful. I wish I was old enough for a bus pass….
Anyway, I marched manfully off along the road under and beside which lies Hadrian’s Wall itself. There’s not much of it to see – there’s bits of it under a hawthorn hedge – a low wall of square stones. The first part of today was through arable fields of beans, oats and barley. I pinched a few beans…
There were a few other small groups of HW walkers around to make things interesting for, I have to say, this part isn’t the most interesting walking in the world. And it’s noisy too. All day I walked parallel to the B6318, known as “The Military Road”!. There’s a song about it. Its very straight and, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was a Roman road. But it isn’t. It was built when relations with the naughty Scots just to the North were still potentially a bit shaky and a road from Newcastle (with it’s short sea-borne supply lines to the South) to Carlisle would enable the movement of troops quickly across country to bugger up the plans of any tartan horde moving down the West coast route or investing Carlisle. They built it on top of most of the archaeology. They just didn’t care in those days.
So, in showers light and heavy, I plodded West along a shorn strip of grass. I met a chap on a mowing machine and joked with him by asking how long it takes him to get to Carlisle. “Three weeks” says he. “Then we turn round and come back. Its very enjoyable” His job was to mow a wide strip of grass for the HW walkers. And sure enough, there’s a wide strip of mown grass all the way. Except a few muddy bits.
As always with a slightly dull walk, interest can be had from interacting with other walkers and, as we waited for the Robin Hood pub to open, I discovered that I shared something in common with three other walkers:
Viz:
1) I was born in the same maternity hopital as the first one (Bank hall Maternity Hospital in Burnley)
2) The second one used to live a few hundred metres from Chez Knipe in Crook
3) The third was born in the hospital I used to work at in Bishop Auckland.

It’s a very small world, specially up here in the North east. Luckily, Hadrians Wall is a popular route, so you can always have a chat.

Excitement is also added to the walk at the Western end of the section by the frisky suckler cattle. There's a lot of beef around here.

After the pub, I lunched under a gooseberry tree, fed the babies and picked two dozen ripe and juicy gooseberries, which I scoffed over the next few miles.

I also happened upon the “Ramblers Rest” tea van which has a little garden and chairs and a pet blackbird – and a friendly chat over a cuppa and some ginger cake.

The route does get a bit better as it goes West, although its almost always noisy and any archaeology is difficult to see. After the Port Gate ( now a roundabout) where Dere Street headed off towards Edinburgh, the walk follows the edge of the vallum, which is the defence system against attacks or crossings of the wall from the South. At milecastle 23b, I turned South and followed the lanes back to Corbridge. (There's a mile castle every mile, and they're all numbered...)

Easy walking and just a few contours. I covered another 11 miles of Hadrians Wall, and 16 miles altogether, with 950 ish feet of uphill. One pint, one cuppa, 26 gooseberries.

The next Hadrians Wall walk is scheduled for 5 August 2009

Hadrians Wall day 1 part 2

And so, after nursing a pint of Scruttocks Old Dirigible for a while, subsequent to which it seemed to have evaporated or something, I continued along the very attractive riverside path past the coal staithes where Carter (as in “Get Carter”) started to chase one of the villains around with a shotgun and a bottle of whisky till they got (in the space of a couple of minutes) about 20 miles down the Durham Coast where Carter done him in and dumped the corpse in a coal-hopper.

Then to Elswick, where, apparently, the early 20th century Japanese navy was built and along the Scotswood Road (yer shoulda seen us gannin) through Lemington (welcomes HW walkers to it’s shopping centre) and finally to Newburn, where, exhausted and dehydrated, I was forced, by a deliberate navigation error, to visit a second public bar – The boathouse. (v nice pint by the way)

I sat out in the sun, stroking the landlady’s poodle (ahem) and gazing across the river to ..er.. the other side of the river. This was where, in 1640, which is just was just before teatime in those days, the naughty Scots under the highly experienced General Leslie and his 20,000 enthusiastic soldiers and 100 pieces of artillery, faced a few thousand reluctant, under-equipped, safety-concious, untrained and generally pissed off English defenders and battered them till they ran away. Thus, the Scots outflanked the Northern defences of Newcastle, approached it from the direction of the Metro centre (which was doing special offers in tattie scones and crates of Tennants lager that week) and persuaded it to surrender. The English parliament refused to pay for another army to eject the Scots from the North-East and quite a lot of trouble ensued, during which King Charles went on to lose his head.

General Leslie invented the electric organ and retired to the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

I know a lot about history, me.

And so, refreshed, I continued along the riverbank, which was now unmetalled and had, in fact, unknown to me, been diverted, and then along another old tramway as far as George Stephenson’s birthplace. George Stephenson’s family lived in one room of the cottage and George, of course, went on to invent station announcements, the refreshment trolley service and signal failures. So the lad done well, even if the London bankers took the mickey out of his Northumbrian accent. He’d always had an ambition to visit the train museum in Darlington , so he built a railway to it.
Unfortunatelty his train was delayed and it was closed when he arrived.

As I say, I know a lot about history.

Next there were contours. Aaargh. Eight or nine 10 metre contours are encountered on the walk up to Heddon on the Wall. Some of them are rather too friendly with each other which results in the hill being a bit of a slog at the end of a day and what with the legs being full of amber nectar as well.

West to East walkers should be encouraged that once they get to Heddon, virtually all of any uphill work is behind them. Its downhill or very flat from here and very very easy walking.

As I had missed the bus by approximately minus eight minutes, I went into the Three Tuns pub and bus stop and had a quick three or four pints of the local brew before the next bus came and hour and eight minutes later. The 685 took me swiftly and cheaply (£2.80) back into Newcastle for the train back to Durham.

As the station announcer said “Bing Bong! This is a cuzzmer sevvis annment. Would passger (sound drowned out by passing goods train) contact iz fammly immedittlie on a vey urgent peznal matta. Az I say, this is vey urgent . Fangoo”

“Bing Bong. Pazzgers waity on paffoam four for the ninetin farty chain to Bergam Noo Steee shudd be away that the chain iz now leavin fom paffoam six. Fangoo."

The next Hadrian's Wall day, From Heddon towards Corbridge (notice the careful wording here) is due to happen on 27 July 2009. I can't wait, Day 1 was such good walking.

Hadrians Wall Day 1 (pt 1)

This is the start of my exposition of the Hadrian’s Wall path from Wallsend to Bowness on Solway. I’ll be doing this in day walks over the next couple of months.
Its not a guide to the walk, but, maybe, readers planning to do this walk from East to West might get some idea of what its like.
Readers intending to travel West to East will need to read it backwards.

Day 1 – Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall 14 Miles and (a mere) 450 feet of uphill.
Mainly riverside, Newcastle Quayside, Alang the Scotswood Road to Blaydon, more riverside, and a golf course. Pretty much all on tarmac or pavement. And flat. You don’t need hill boots for this. Take some cash to spend.

I used public transport to get around. Apart from the walking bit. I walked the walking bit.

I was lucky that I’d taken the median time from all of the clocks in the house and not just the mode. If I’d used the mode, I’d have missed the ten past eight bus from Crook which leaves at three minutes to seven. As it was, I was early.
This didn’t matter too much as the train was late.
As the station announcer announced

“Bing Bong! The necks chain at parterm too will be the delayed nine chirtneer to Enber Wavlie calling at NoooCASSSSle, Mor’eth (glottal stop used), and Enber Wavlie. Chain is appomatly ther mizz late due to sinlin dicklies at Doxtah. We appljize for this dlai. Fangoo. Was that allright? (second voice in background) "Better. Try it a bit quicker next time. Or when there's another train going through”

Anyway, it turned up eventually and the Tyneside Metro took me efficiently to Wallsend (announced as “Warlzend”) in about a quarter of an hour.

I progressed slightly self-conciously down to the start of Hadrian's Wall, the excavated and partially recreated roman outpost of Segedunum, with its visitor centre and general “stuff” It’s a big site. Apparently it was very a very popular posting for roman soldiers due to it being very near the shops and not too far from Whitley Bay, where they could take the kids to the sands at weekends.

I followed the “Hadrians Way” brown signs past the cranes and slipways and semi-derelict shipyard buildings of Swan Hunters and on to the tarmacced strip of an old railway line. From Segedunum to Newburn, Hadrians Wall path doesn’t follow Hadrians Wall (which goes through backyards, school playgrounds, factories and sandwhich shops) but sticks to disused railway lines and riverside promenades until it escapes the city when it turns north to join the wall. This part is known and signposted as “Hadrians Way”

It’s a fine walk, though and starts well with a long, wild strip of feral woodland, thick with all kinds of wild flowers, the scents of which mix with the city smells of fresh coffee and new bread and the seaweedy River just over there. There’s also willow warblers and chiff-chaffs mixed with gulls and factory noisies and police cars and childrens playgrounds. They've even got a rich cover of almost ripe brambles and dozens of cherry trees full of cherries. And buddleia with butterflies. It’s a heady, exciting mix. I found it immensely enjoyable and I marched along easily and happily. There are no difficulties. There’s even a tea van (“get Stuft”) which does a very nice sausage butty for a couple of quid. But there’s pubs and cafes as well.

Just one word of warning for those having a late start, or maybe late Eastwardly walking people - some parts of the path show clear signs of a number of fires, probably, I would guess, the local yoofs destroying stolen cars. This might not be such a good area to walk through in an evening without a large dog or a pal called "Basher", or , possibly "Crusher" who constantly asks the question "Can I 'it 'im now, boss?" (daytime Geordies are very friendly, however)

Ultimately, the path leaves the line and joins the riverside at Walker and follows this into the middle of the city where I decided to sit and take it all in for a while. I sat in the sun at the Quayside pub amongst the lunching office workers.

To be continued…..

Hadrians Wall

Just been planning a walk along Hadrians Wall. Not sure why. But whatever the reason, I'll be doing it in day walks and, at least at first, I'll be using public transport to get around the Newcastle city parts.
I'm looking forward to it.
If you can see some numbers below this post, then something has gone wrong.
This is this week's cryptic message.
More stuff tommorrow - or later today anyway.
In the meantime, this is just a "heads-up" for anybody interested in Hadrians Wall that I'm intending to walk this walk over the next couple of months and I'll be writing all about it here....