Walking the wall 2018

Due to the bad weather yesterday, we skipped the passport stamp in Carlisle sports centre so had to go there this morning instead adding an extra 2 miles to our walk. We started through Rickerby parkland in Carlisle. In comparison to yesterday it was absolutely stunning. Crossing the memorial bridge (dedicated to soldiers from WW1 and opened in the 1920s) the path heads along the banks of the River Eden. This is a haven for wildflowers and butterflies. We spotted a heron too resting in a tree. The Eden bridge in Carlisle is impressive and during the floods of 2015 the water level reached the top of the arches, hard to believe today. Onwards from Carlisle the trail enters flat countryside with open grassland, mature ash trees and lots of friendly cows. There were a few walkers to chat to but not as many as the last few days and no facilities to speak of. We stopped at Burgh by Sands for lunch, which was the first place we found. This little village's...

There was no escaping today's walk. With a 5 day traverse of the country we had to have a high mileage day. The route was not as spectacular in geographical terms as day three but I was really delighted with what we saw today. By 10am we crossed the border into Cumbria; what followed was beautiful English countryside with rolling green hills and broadleaf trees. We passed numerous mighty oaks and a beech forest, a waterfall and some pictureque rivers ( and a playground 😉). The topography of the wall changed outside Gilsland. Initially we saw impressive stretches of the wall and hill forts but these soon became few and far between. English Heritage attributed this to the red Cumbrian stone that was used to construct this section of the wall, it is prone to weathering and therefore had to be recovered in earth to protect it. By mid afternoon we had seen and chatted with a multitude of walkers from all over the world, couples, families, D of E groups. I had a lon...

It was an exhausting but exhilarating day. Exhausting because the weather was awful - rains and strong winds all day and very tough terrain. Exhilarating because there is nothing (imho) that beats being in wild-country. Today the hills did their very best to dampen the spirits of the walkers; the uphills were brutal, the descents slippy and steep with a heavy pack and the high wind pushed you off balance. But I kept a big smile on my face because I always feel most in tune with myself when I am out here. You understand what your limits are and then realise you always have a little more left. We met loads of walkers today, some day trippers, others doing the whole route and lots of rambling groups. I was pleased to hear that everyone else had taken two days to do the route we covered today. We also saw a red deer but he ran off before I could take a photo. We passed the best of the wall today; through Housestead, Sycamore gap ( famous from Robin Hood Prince of Thi...

This was a long days hike of 19 miles with an elevation gain of 2385 feet. There was a noticable transition from farmland and grass-covered ramparts and ditches, to open countryside and wall remains. The route passed numerous English Heritage sites at - Rudchester - Vallum farm - Halton Chester Roman fort - Brunton - Chester's Bridge - Black carts - Brocoltia Roman fort From Chollerford we saw more open stretches of intact wall, these are quite impressive and give a better feel for what it would have looked like originally. The open countryside brought more random weather and we spent much of the day playing a type of waterproof hokey cokey (one leg in, one leg out, in, out, in, out...) While the weather decided if it wanted to be sunny or rain. In the end it chose rain and lots of it; not dissimilar to Dartmoor on a good day. The national trail has a passport you can stamp at strategic points, there were two today at the Robin Hood Inn and Che...