The one with the surprise visit, cow incident and the convicts!
🥾 DISTANCE: 12.8 miles
📍LOCATION: Twice Brewed to Birdoswald
🌞 WEATHER: Another good walking weather day. Cloudy, but windy, sprinkling of sunshine which actually burnt my ankles!
⛑ HOW’S EVERYONE FEELING?
How honest should I be? A few more blisters have appeared and hiking sandals are now being worn. We have dodgy hips (these ladder stiles are not helping!) and aching muscles. Overall, moral is still high, everyone is super positive. They are all very supportive of each other. This group have bonded so well. It’s a real team effort. Go team!
SUMMARY:-
I think everyone was finally glad to see the back of the PUDS (pointless ups and downs) today. Saying that PUDS were replaced by what felt like hundreds of ladder stiles! Cheryl was grinning from ear to ear at the end of today and told me it was the best day yet! We saw so many things, but the highlights included many wall sections with lots of milecastles. Everyone purchased “I walked the wall” t-shirt at a little quarry cafe. Guess what we will wear on the last day? 😉
THE LONG WINDED VERSION:-
🥾 8.40 am – We set off from Twice Brewed by foot after another hearty breakfast Up we go! Did some of us really climb down that cliff face to our right yesterday afternoon?
🏔 9.14 – Blimey! These PUDS are quite challenging today. We reach a trig point which gives us amazing views. Alison asks “did we really walk over that ridge yesterday?”. “You sure did” I smiled. Everyone did!
🚶🏻♂️ 9.35 – The next PUD was difficult for those that are vertically challenged. Gabrielle took her time and was very strategic as to where she put her feet. Alison goes down in her bum (good call!). I’d much rather people have a grubby bottom than a broken ankle!
🎶 I wait for everyone else as this bit is dodgy! If you can imagine, these PUDS are like a huge U shape. I’m at the bottom of the U. Pat & Dawn are going up the U and the back markers Gwyne & Holly arrive to come down the U. Gwyne takes one look at what is head of her and spontaneously bursts into song “she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes”… from the other side of the U, Dawn continues the song “singing aye aye yippee….” everyone joins in! It was just a lovely moment!
👍 On Hadrians Wall there are sections where you can avoid a few PUDS and join a lower Old military road which runs parallel to the wall. I know we have a time constraint today and that people are tired and sore so I give them the option to take the lower trail if they prefer. Let’s just say that there wasn’t much of a discussion and a decision was made. The old military triad to was for this very small section. It was a good call and a great moral booster.
🦢 11.12 – We reach our first check-in point which was a little quarry called Cawfields. The toilets were a welcome sight as were the picnic benches. Everyone has developed their little routines when they stop for a break. Pat is straight on the floor with her legs in the air (dying swan look) lol. Others remove shoes and socks.
“That’s it for PUDS” I declare. Thank god for that!
🪜 The trail now starts weaving its way over farmland. These ladder stiles seem so much bigger than last year and they are relentless. We were lucky on occasion as the gates next to the ladders were accessible.
🇦🇺 “Are you one of the 12?” said a random Ozzy hiker who appeared from the West. “We sure are,” I said. “You must be Julia,” she said. It’s always weird when a stranger knows your name. She had been talking to one of our crew up the trail. “When you see a lady with long red hair walking with another lady with dark curly hair, can you tell them that they are doing brilliantly,” I said. “Sure thing,” she said, and that’s exactly what she did. People on the trail are so kind.
😡 Ok, I lied about the PUDS as more appeared in front of us. Note to self, the PUDS end after the 2nd quarry not the first. I’m walking with the middle crew. Pat, Dawn, Alison, Gabriel and Len. They are not happy with me as another steep hill is ahead of them. We have aching limbs and some are now limping. I gather everyone together and explain that we can take the lower military track again, but you will miss some amazing views. It was unanimous, the lower track it was. It was actually a bit longer than the higher route, but much easier on the body.
👕 13.10 – The old military road may be longer but it was so much quicker. As we appeared at the 2nd quarry & cafe we saw some familiar faces. Yep, the front runners Sue, Steve, Mark and Cheryl were there having a well-deserved break. Walltown Quarry was brilliant and the lady behind the kiosk couldn’t be more helpful. She was topping up people’s cups with hot water from a kettle as the machine didn’t give you enough! She let people try on a T-shirt before they purchased one (which most of us did). The bonus was an extra stamp in your passport had been created for Walltown Quarry, plus she had stamps for all the other locations if for some reason you had missed one. We
Purchased sarnies and coffee and enjoyed a well-deserved rest. Pat was straight on the floor in her dying swan pose 😂
☕️ I waited for Holly and Gwyne. Holly has been struggling and I’m a bit concerned about her. They both had an 11hr day yesterday and those PUDS and ladder stiles would have been challenging. They took my advice and also completed the old military road, but Holly is in a lot of pain with the balls of her feet. After a long discussion and with the assistance of the very helpful lady at the quarry, Holly decides that she’d rather have a shorter day and get the bus from here. It was a hard choice to make, but it was the right decision to make.
🚌 So, from the quarry, it was just me & Gwyne. We hugged Holly goodbye and told her to let us know when she’d arrived at the hotel.
💬 2.34 pm – Gwyne and I were now walking on our own and we picked up the pace. The PUDS were behind us and the weather was good. We chatted and soldiered on.
👋 Oi.. “ someone shouted. I turned around to see a guy running down the hill towards us waving his arms. “Yo’ “are you Julia!” He said? Puzzled again at a stranger knowing my name “yes? That’s me” I replied. “I’m Justin, Justin Whiting” he said, as if I should know who he was. I must have looked puzzled and then he said “from YouTube”! It was then I realised that he had a microphone attached to his chest. We did a quick selfie. It’s weird being recognised on the trail. 😂
😱 3.28 – A loud squeal penetrated from Gwyne and I wondered what on earth was going on. We had just arrived at Gisland and Gwyne was now running across the car park. Her sister had travelled all this way to surprise her on the walk! How brilliant is that? She had come with a flask of hot water and sachets of decaf instead coffee which is Gwyne’s favourite. What a moral booster (for both of us). The strange thing was that her sister had no idea where Gwyne was as Gwyne had run out of data on her phone. It was pure coincidence that we walked through that car park just as Rowina had arrived. Now that’s the universe looking out for us!
👋 We waved goodbye to Rowina and marched on. It’s now 4 pm and we only have about a mile and a bit to go. I text Keith to say “can you pick us up at five, rather than 6.30 pm!”. “Ney bother” he text back! We love Keith.
🧱 The final section before our destination was fabulous. We see lots of the walls and many forts/milecastles. We stop for photos by the river, climb one last hill and we are there! Birdoswald, our final destination. Everyone else is there and we were not that far behind them.
🚐 5 pm – Keith turns up and lots of tired bodies fall into the minibus. We literally drive for two mins then we have to stop as a herd of cows is on the road. Kieth keeps the crew entertained was very bad cow jokes, but you can’t help but laugh. We reach The Station Hotel and Holly is there waiting for us.
👮♀️ This hotel is quite dated, but it’s clean and the service is fabulous. We order a Chinese meal from “Yummys” (who calls a Chinese takeaway Yummys? 😂) and eat together in the hotel bar. Next to our table is a group of older men all dressed as convicts with the exception of the birthday boy (60) who is dressed as s female police officer, with a big truncheon. Yep, their evening is going to get messy!
It’s now 9 pm and as the convicts head out to the nearest nightclub, we head to bed.