🥾 DISTANCE: 16 miles
📍 LOCATION: Heddon-on-the-Wall to Chollerford
⛅️ WEATHER: Cloudy, windy, rain and sunshine! Actually, it was perfect walking weather.
⛑ HOW’S EVERYONE FEELING?
No heat stroke today, so that’s a bonus. We now have a few blisters, sore hips and achey shoulders (and one painful wrist). Nothing serious, just aches and pains. The determination of this group is just amazing!
SUMMARY
16 miles which took us along a road for a good proportion of the day. We climbed ladder stiles (over 50 according to Alison), navigated through forest and diversion routes. We stopped quite often and the check in system is working well. The finish line was over a fabulous bridge where s cold beer was waiting for us!
THE BLOG:
🍳 6.50 am – Eight of us met at the hotel lobby at 6.50 am and took a short walk to Queen Street for a fantastic breakfast! £5.50 for a full fry-up and a cuppa. Oh, and those old-fashioned tomato ketchup containers shaped like a tomato (not seen those since I was a kid!).
📸 9 am – Keith arrived and took us to The Mucky Duck. After a quick briefing, we are off! Within five minutes we saw our first slice of the wall. It was quite exciting and photos were taken. We were not going to see any more wall for another 14 miles!
🐑 9.42 – We are walking on a footpath but alongside a busy road. The drone of traffic was a constant companion. Apparently, the actual wall is below the A69. We are walking through a field of unusual-looking sheep with horns. (Not goats!). Dawn is walking beside me and casually says “did you know that all sheep had horns back in the day? They got in the way of the sheep shearing process so they decided to breed out the horns”. We then had a full discussion on how on earth do you breed out horns. We still don’t know the answer to that!
🦉 10 am – We walk by a lovely property called Two Hoots! Snap.,, I took a photo as it’s a fabulous name for a big house.
☕️ 11.30 – I’m chuffed to see Robin Hoods Inn which is where the group can collect a stamp in the HW passports and have a break. I had suggested that people stop here for lunch but the front runners (me, Sue, Stephen, Cheryl & Mark) are here at 11.30 am and it’s too early for lunch. We only had a fry-up a few hours ago. By the time we were ready to leave, the others were trickling in. We high-fived them and said we would catch them later.
🐐 12.20 – We are now off-road for a while which is lovely. As we walked through a small holding area of goats, sheep, ponies and horses a black sheep stops right in front of Steve. He puts his hand out and start’s tickling the sheep’s ears. The sheep nuzzles him and is asking for more tickles! I’ve never seen anything like that lol. (See video).
More walking alongside the road….
🥗 1.50 pm – We reach a busy roundabout which houses an old pub which is now a coffee house called The Errington Arms. Our tummies are rumbling so we stop for lunch here. The food is fabulous and Mark declared that it was the best steak pie he had ever eaten. We stop here for nearly an hour, airing our feet and just resting.
💀 3.05 – We’ve just arrived at a Hadrian’s Wall Temporary Diversion sign. This trail leads us through a moss-covered forest and is such a welcome change from the road path. We stop to eat wild blueberries yum, then Steve spots an animal skull.
🐎 3.30 We are back on a footpath and another farm is to our left. Suddenly we hear an unusual sound of a donkey. My god, it sounds in pain!! Mark announced, “that donkey sounds exactly how I feel!” As he climbs yet another ladder stile!
🧱 3.50 pm – 13.8 miles completed and we finally see another slice of The Wall. We stop here for a good 5 mins taking photos and reading the information boards. The Wall is amazing when you think about it. It’s HUGE! The stone wall, with has a maximum height of about 15 feet (4.6 metres), was 10 Roman feet (3 metres) wide.
🐑 4.35 – We are now on our way to Chollerford, our final destination. It’s about 15 mins away and a cold beer is calling! I’m busy taking notes on my phone and didn’t realise that everyone had stopped in front of me. I look up to see Steve chasing a sheep to the right. He was scrambling through brambles to try and get this sheep back into the field beyond. Steve certainly had a way with sheep! (That sounds wrong!)
🍺 4.45 – We cross a gorgeous river and fall into The George Inn at Chollerford. It’s been a pleasure walking with Mark, Cheryl, Sue & Steve today. We sit in the garden chatting about the day with cold drinks in our hands. From here we can see the bridge and patiently wait for the others to arrive.
🚌 It wasn’t long before Alison & Len joined us in the pub. Then Keith, our driver, turned up and picked up one of our ladies on the route. Keith and I take the minibus to see if others would like a lift back. We stopped for Pat & Gaby but they shook their heads “we want to walk” they declared and waved us on. Gwyne & Holly were a good 30 mins away (walking), so we stopped to collect them. “Please can you drop us back here tomorrow?” they pleaded as they didn’t want to miss any section of the trail. “Ay” said Keith. Ney problem”
👏 We drive back to the pub and within a few mins, Pat and Gabriele enter the car park to a huge round of applause from their fellow hikers.
It’s been a tough day, but it’s all good character-building!
🏨 Tonight we are staying at Twice Brewed Inn, my favourite hotel on the trail. The food is excellent as is the service and the rooms.
💤 Night night all. See you tomorrow for the most challenging day of this hike!