Hiking with dogs!

These guys amazed us! Each had his dog, and each also had a huge pack with gear (for himself, and for his dog).

They seemed to do well --they leashed the dogs whenever sheep were in the fields, but they struggled over each style with the dogs. (In some parts of England --- Cornwall and the Lake District -- there are access ways for dogs through styles, but not in Northumbria along the wall.)

We took pictures for them (with their cameras) at a turret or fort along the way. And their dogs were so cute! The one walking on the wall was a scruffy rescue dog; the other, docile and well trained.

Anyway, these are the guys and dogs we met at the end of the walk, hanging out in the shade on the road outside the pub at Bowness on Sollway. But the dogs could not enter the pub with their possessions. So sad.

Our Host Ian

We stayed a couple of nights at a Carlisle B&B. Our landlord, if we can call him that, at the Marlborough House B&B in Carlisle was a bit of a character. He and I didn’t get off to a great start right off the bat, he was less than co-operative about getting access to the internet. He begrudgingly agreed to let us use the computer to log on but wouldn’t let me hook up my laptop to the system.

He owns the pub across the road from the B&B and promotes it in his own special way. “So, where are yas goin’ for supper?
I said, “We aren’t sure, perhaps across the road or…”
“Or what?” he said, “Yas can’t beat my prices, Two meals for ten pounds. Bloody good food too. Not like the crap you get at other places around here.”

So we went across the road. He was right. The food was good.

He was wondering about who would want a hot breakfast in the morning. I said the I wasn’t sure. I had been eating a light breakfast each day. He said, “Have the full English breakfast, Why not? We have eggs, smoked bacon, tomatos, mushrooms, beans and good Cumberland sausage, not like that shit sausage yas get in Canada”

Shelley asked, “Can I just part of the breakfast? Like a boiled egg and some toast?”

He told her, “Ya gets the full English breakfast, what yas don’t eat, we’ll just feed to the dog.”

Despite his curmudgeonly front he was a great guy. Basically, what you see is what you get. Drove the lot to the train station this morning and made a special trip to the bus station for Shelley and I because we were leaving later.

The B&B was good, clean, comfortable and the place was friendly. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. And he was right, the full English breakfast was good and Shelley made a couple of small dogs happy. The pub food was very good good and his prices are very good. One pound ninety for a shot of scotch.

We Have Walked Across England

Well, we did it. We walked across England. Today was mostly across pasture land, through a few small villages, a four km detour when our guide got lost, and finally across a salt plain by the Firth of Solloway and into Bowness.

About 4:00 this after noon we arrived at the King’s Arms Pub and got our certificates. Over the last week we have crossing paths with a whole community of hikers many who drifted into the pub shortly before or after we did. There were lots of congratulations all round and lots more beer. In fact I think that this trek is fueled by beer.

Tomorrow we all go our separate ways, one person is staying here in Carlisle for a few days, an couple are off to Portugal and a some are heading home. We are taking the bus to Keswick in the Lake District.

From Banks to Carlisle

We started the day just before the small village of Banks. After taking the obligatory Banks photos we moved on through the pasture land. In fact most of the day was spent walking from farm to farm, across field after field, dodging the occasional bull, (they looked more interested in the cows than us) we went down country lanes twisting and turning through the English countryside. There is little evidence of the wall through this section and the further we walked the less frequent sightings became. Unlike the more harsh and rugged highlands, this land has seen significant development for a very long time.

The more people, the more the wall was plundered for it’s stone. In one case a whole priory was build, using Roman stone taken from the wall. The scenery is pastoral as opposed to spectacular but it is all very pretty.

On the outskirts of Carlisle we came across sheep being sheared. It was quite impressive, they grouped the sheep with their young lambs so they wouldn’t run. They herded the sheep through a chute and did them one at a time. What a racket though, lambs bleating, looking for their mothers, mother sheep baaing, looking for their lambs. When that group of mother sheep were all done and released, they let the lambs all go. They all paired up quickly then relaxed a bit

We walked 26 km today, though most of the terrain was fairly gentle, I got my first blister. We are staying at a Carlisle B&B tonight

Tomorrow morning we are walking the last leg of this hike. The Carlisle to the Irish Sea section is about 22 km of flat ground, originally salt marsh. We walk to Bowness on Solloway, get our certificates and have a celebratory beer, which is how we have been ending every day come to think of it, We’ll have dinner with the rest of the crew tomorrow night then head our separate ways.

Not any Thinner

One of the things that surprises me is that I don’t think I am losing any weight. We are walking on average about 21 km a day, over pretty strenuous landscape and I think I should be getting a bit more trim. In fact I know I deserve to be more trim with all this exercise.

I have been eating light breakfasts and just a sandwich and an apple for lunch but who knows. It must be supper, We have been eating pub food. The food in British pubs is hearty to say the least and they love potatoes. Some of the meals have been huge, add to that quite a bit of beer and I guess that is my answer

Onward from Twice Brewed

We got started a bit later this morning as a result of the fact that The Twice Brewed Hotel was a little later with breakfast than we expected. Our B&B which was the Vallum Lodge, about 100 metres down the road from Twice Brewed, was very good and made arrangements for the three of us staying there to eat early. They were great, I think those of us who got sent down to the overflow spot, got the best deal.

The day started with a series of Crags bringing us to the highest point of land. The scenery was spectacular. The wall is very present through this section of the walk and wonderfully so. The remains of turrets and milecastles perched on the edge of those towering crags has to make each of us wonder what it must have been like for those Roman soldiers, manning those towers day after day. Winter must have been very tough.

The landscape is rugged and the weather unforgiving. We had a taste of that unpredictable British weather this afternoon. We thought we’d get a great sunny day but as we moved through this high ground a thunderstorm developed very quickly. In fact, we got soaked in a series of rain showers and ended the day in a rain and hail storm.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was that we were entertained by the RAF jet fighters training through the hills. Pretty amazing flying.

Our Day Off

We had a day off today and spent our time visiting local Roman forts, and the small village of Haltwhistle where we had a pub lunch. A stuffed potato and a pint.

It has been a good break. More beer tonight and back on the trail in the morning.

It has been tough to find wireless connections out here in the hills. I am using the Northunberland National Park Authority at Once Brewed's Wi-Fi signal. this evening bit my last access for a few days.

Robin Hood Tree

For those of you who have seen Robin Hood movie, much of it was shot around here, Northumberland pretending to be Nottinghamshire.

The locals are pretty scathing about it but don’t fail to point out the tree they tried to hang Kevin Costner from.

You come upon the tree after coming down from Steel Rigg, one of the many predominant geographical features of the country around here. There are two trails here, one over the top another around the middle. After the climbing over the top of all these hills to this point we chose to take the lower route for the last one. I am not sure my knees could have taken yet another steep climb.

Day Three, The Walk to Twice Brewed

The first couple of nights we stayed at the same B&B/Pub in Newburn which was a bit odd because although we walked a good distance each day, we were backtracked by minivan each night to our accommodations.

On day three we started the day at Brunton Tower, a small section of preserved wall along with the remains of a tower. The towers housed two to four soldiers and there were a couple of towers in between each mile castle which was bigger and housed a dozen or more soldiers.

We then walked down through a pretty little village called Collorford and spend an hour or so looking over the ruin of a cavalry fort called Chester’s. I am not sure where the name comes from.

With a start like that I thought we’d spend most of the day walking through pastoral farm land. An easy day. I kind of miscalculated or perhaps I should have looked at the contours on the map a little closer.

It was through farmland but, up hill for the first few miles. But, bit by bit we began to see more and more evidence of the wall. In places the vallum was very present and in others the vallum the wall and the ditch was very clear.

As we made progress through the early afternoon the first of the crags started getting closer. The first Sewingshields Craig was a tough climb but it clearly was through some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. To the south, miles and miles of rolling hills and pasture, to our north a huge cliff dropped down several hundred feet. To the west the undulating hills continued before us. We walked the ridge.

After a very long day we arrived at our hotel/pub and downed that cold welcome beer.

That evening there was pub trivia in the pub but I am finding, after a twenty km walk over rough terrain, I was ready to pack in by 9:30.

Hadrian Day Two

This will be a short post for now since the library has kindly given me limited free access to the internet.

We saw the wall for the first time since Wallsend, first thing this morning. Then not again for some time. Signs of the wall are revealed slowly to walkers. For a while we mostly saw earthworks then more remnants late of the day.

We ended the day in Wall. Another 23 km walked today.

Tomorrow we will see the wall for most of the walk but it is a tough walk with lots of up and down near the end.

Walking the Wall Day One

I know you have to read these posts backwards but did I say 'A piece of cake'? Well perhaps not but we did survive and we arrived at the White Swan Pub more than an hour before the shuttle arrived to bring us to our hotel. Pretty good I thought.

No one told us that the pub was at the top of the Tyne River Valley. A tough, long climb after a 24 km trek. I have to tell you that beer tasted great.

We headed out at 8:15 in the morning, first walking above the River Tyne through what was first an old industrial area then eventually the path moved down to the river's edge.

It was a good path, mostly paved and wide enough that we didn't have to worry too much about cyclists. Eventually we arrived at downtown Newcastle and we walked across the famous millennium bridge to the Baltic Centre of the Arts for a coffee and a rest.

The riverside centre of town is lovely, there are so many bridges. I forgot how many but there are traffic bridges, foot bridges, metro bridges and train bridges. They hold a Sunday market along the path and there were scores of fishermen trying their luck at catching codlins, bass and flounder. I am not sure I'd eat anything coming out of that river but edible or not, there were a lot of fishermen.

Eventually we moved our way through the city, through suburbs and back into agricultural land and after a long climb we ended our day at the Heddon on the Wall