PatrickLondon

Apologies if this appears twice - this board doesn't seem to work well with Firefox.

Inspired by how much more than I some US posters here have seen of my own country, I thought - although I'm really a fairweather stroller rather than a dedicated hiker - I'd try a walking break with Contours. I went for their option for a short break (I wasn't sure how much effort I wanted or would be able to put in, or how tied down if the weather turned bad):

http://www.contours.co.uk/self-guide...ll-ITHWSB2.htm

As it turned out, this includes all the bits I'd have been likely to want to see, along the central section of the Wall.

http://www.hadrians-wall.org

Saturday 17 June:

I'd decided to spend the night before in Newcastle so I could see the new developments in the area, but since I'd delayed booking the trip while I watched the weather, the cheapest train fare I could now get was £74.50 (which turned out to be First Class) rather than the £25.50 I could have booked a few days earlier. Moral - don't hesitate: book and adjust your arrangements to suit rather than the other way around. It was on time, but I can't understand why GNER's First Class has such wide tables that make it so much more difficult to get in and out of one's seat.

I'd heard Newcastle city centre wasn't exactly awash with hotel rooms, and the cheapest I could find at short notice in the central area was the Travelodge at £60. Clean, comfortable, anonymous, coin-in-the-slot: not for everyone's tastes, and I'm not sure it's worth that price.

The centre of Newcastle is a handsome collection of late Georgian streets in a golden sandstone: but the effect is not so much Bath as Edinburgh or the "Greek" style in Glasgow. The steep streets down to the Quayside area are even more reminiscent of Edinburgh; but there are a efficient (and cheap, by London standards) electric buses connecting the Quayside to the rest of the city centre. Some suggestions for a weekend visit from the City Council:
http://digbig.com/4kmht

I emerged from an ordinary sort of tandoori meal in time to see the Geordie passegiata in full Saturday night swing, duly bling-ed, boob-tubed and belly-ringed: here a hen party in matching tiaras, there a woman (I'm guessing) detached from one - dressed in a Victorian corset and directoire knickers with rather a lot of feathers on, and huddled in a corner with her mobile trying to find her friends. All this conviviality has its downside, though: back at the Travelodge the room next to mine seemed to have attracted a couple of very loud and drunk girls about 1am, screeching, banging on the door and generally making a hullaballoo, to the point where I had to go downstairs to get the night security man to have a word with them.

Sunday 18 June:

A gentle stroll over to the Baltic (art gallery), the Sage (stunning new concert halls) and the "winking" Millennium Bridge. A range of exhibits at the Baltic:

- a switchbacked tunnel of wire mesh and crumpled newspapers, with umpteen video screens relaying TV programmes from all over, disorientating you with their babble as the footing became more unpredictable with steps and ultimately an aluminium slide to deposit you outside like either a child at play or a piece of luggage at the airport
- a collection of photos and videos by Sam Taylor-Wood, some beautiful, some not (I liked the man playing the Bach Cello Suites - without a cello visible, but the stop action films of fruit decaying and a dead hare being eaten by maggots didn't do much for me, nor David Beckham sleeping)
- a collection (which I did find beautiful) of tiny coloured rectangles on a grid, a bit like DNA charts if you looked closely at them, or undifferentiated grey if you didn't let your eyes rest on them: but if you did wait and look carefully, you could see colours emerging as patterns of ripples, waves and drifts.

Time to watch the Millennium Bridge rise and fall in its "wink" to let a boat pass under, then on to Hexham and the Hadrian's Wall bus to the first B&B booked through Contours. By now, the weather was very wet, and my heart was sinking. But it stopped as I got off the bus (just as well, as there was about a mile to walk into the village):

Mingary,Humshaugh, Hexham NE46 4AG: tel: 01434 681406. Newly converted stone barn in a very pretty village: very comfortable, very pleasant welcome. They ferried us (myself, a couple from Canterbury and another from Canada) to a pub in the next village for an evening meal (and back again afterwards). The pub was a bit overwhelmed by the numbers, as was I by the size of the steak and ale pie. I hadn't yet had the walking to earn it, after all.

PatrickLondon

Monday 19 June:

First day of the walk. The wind seemed to be blowing the clouds away, and in the event this was a very sunny day (I forgot to bring sunblock: the path is mostly in open country and on exposed hill crags, so you feel the full effect of whatever weather is going). As the walk got away from the road and started to rise through lush pastureland, this seemed to be everything I had been hoping for. The wind dropped to the point where it just made the buttercups and daisies dance, the sheep and cows grazed contently, the larks and swallows were on the wing: and so, with a whistling roar, were the RAF's low-level training jets. Just as well I hadn't got my flask of coffee open.

Eventually the path rose through woodland to high crags with spectacular views, descending into Housesteads fort and a little museum. I'd reached it in good time, and had some time to kill before being picked up to be taken to the next B&B:

Gibbs Hill Farm, Bardon Mill, Hexham NE47 7AP tel: 01434 344030. A complex of farm B&B and bunkhouse accommodation a long way from the main road and path - you would need a car to get here. But the housemartins swooped about the eaves, I could see pheasants strolling through the fields, and there was nothing to be heard but the occasional bleat (a very insistent lamb at the kitchen door the next morning) - and the RAF, of course. Another very comfortable stay (the taxi driver- laid on by Contours - said "So you'll have Mrs Gibson to make a fuss of you", and she was indeed very hospitable). Dinner again involved being driven to a neighbouring B&B - that is to say, a couple of miles away - which employs a chef and takes in people from a range of B&Bs around: Saughy Rigg Farm, Twice Brewed, Haltwhistle NE49 9PT, tel: 01434 344120. The meal was pretty upmarket - a warm salad starter, carrot and ginger soup (delicious), pork with apricots (again, far too much for me, though strangely I could find room for the sticky toffee pudding) - £15.50, or £20 including my share of the wine I shared with two merry Yorkshire widows who were also staying at Gibbs Hill too.

Tuesday 20 June:

Once more the weather looked doubtful, but as Mrs Gibson drove me back to Housesteads, the sun started to come out and the sky to break up into "Simpsons clouds". Now the path was entirely along high crags with some steep ups and downs. I caught up with the Canadian couple I'd met the first night, and as we walked along together another RAF jet suddenly swept up over the crag in front of us and flew towards us, barely 20 feet above our heads and 50 yards to one side of us: I couldn't get my camera in time for that oh so symbolic photo.

I'd planned to come off the crags if the weather turned wet after all, and not long after the Canadians decided they wanted to catch the bus to Vindolanda fort and museum, I remembered I was running out of cash, and a very dark and chilly cloud came along. So I came off the path to catch the bus into Haltwhistle, which has the nearest cash machine. This, as it happens, is right beside the bus stop, and the next bus back came along in 10 minutes or so. So I rejoined the walk about a mile, and an hour and a half, further on from where I'd left it.

The wind was getting up but the rain still wasn't making an appearance, so I ploughed on under leaden skies, but still with spectacular views. I was starting to feel, though, that however spectacular the scenery was, I could wish there was a bit less of it. The guide-book's chirpiness ("All the more splendid is the continuing switchback course of the Wall&quot was getting a bit wearing. But it was hard not to feel a certain eery continuity with the soldiers who must have tramped up and down along here, stood in the same turrets looking down on the cattle coming in for cover and wondering when they would get into the warm.

Not a moment too soon, the path led down to level ground and the last half mile or so into the next night's stop at Greenhead: because here at last was some rain. Not a problem (if you have decent waterproofs) at ground level in grassy meadows and field paths: but I wouldn't want to be on the steep crag paths with alternate mud and stone steps.

This night's stop was at the Greenhead Hotel, Greenhead, Cumbria CA6 7HB. tel: 016977 47411.
A village pub with rooms and restaurant, under new management and newly re-decorated. Again, very comfortable, and an excellent evening meal (venison meatballs in a port and mushroom sauce, white chocolate and meringue roulade with raspberries and redcurrants - £15). The lady who served breakfast asked if I'd slept all right, because she'd been kept awake by the people singing and playing guitars and the piano in the bar. I hadn't heard a thing and slept right through it.

PatrickLondon

Wednesday 21 June:

Rain AND sun together this morning. But this day's walking was almost entirely in gentle farmland, and the rain disappeared within about half an hour.

Throughout the walk the sheep had either ignored me or moved away as I passed; but on this morning, one older lamb came up and started nuzzling me - presumably a hand-reared orphan who thought all humans were an easy touch. But I had nothing to give, and anyway tough love demands he should learn to take advantage of all that lovely grass. But I had enough manners not to mention mint sauce, and passed on.

I was nearly at my destination by lunchtime, so when I saw the bus coming I flagged him down and went back to see the Vindolanda and Roman Army Museums that I had by-passed, thinking there wouldn't be time, unless I kept them for a rainy day.

So I was able to see just about everything there was to see along this route, and all within a reasonable time.

Final B&B: Quarryside, Banks, Brampton, Cumbria CA6 2JH, tel: 016977 2538
Again, very comfortable, slightly more "old school" (no tea-making facilities in the bedrooms, but a pot of tea and home-made shortbreads on arrival). Their own eggs for breakfast, and still an ensuite bathroom. For an evening meal, they took me (the other two people staying didn't feel like going out: since they'd walked 15 miles, atht was understandable) to the Belted Will pub in Hallbankgate: steak pie (again a huge portion I couldn't quite finish) and ice cream, £8.95. The pub drove me back again.

Thursday 22 June:

I was depending on the first bus (due 10.41 at Banks) to be on time to get me to Carlisle for my train, so I left early to allow plenty of time to get my case up the hill. As it happened both I and the bus were early - theme for the day, it turned out.

I remembered the fuss there'd been, years ago, over plans to close the Carlisle to Settle railway line across the Pennines, so this was a perfect opportunity to try it out. This was also the day the rain really set in across the hills, so sitting in a warm train was a good way to see them. The line does pass through some dramatic scenery, and it was well worth the extra time of taking this route (pity the train windows weren't cleaner):

www.settle-carlisle.co.uk

The train was bang on time at Leeds, and the train from Leeds to London was a few minutes early; out of the tube from Kings Cross to find the bus home just ready to pull up at the stop for me.


A great few days away, and now I don't feel quite so guilty at the things I haven't seen in my own country. Photos, by the way, at:
http://digbig.com/4kmpt

It would be theoretically possible to do this sort of holiday from a fixed base, using the dedicated AD122 Hadrian's Wall bus to get to walking routes and other attractions. Haltwhistle is a sizeable and attractive town, well-placed for trains to Newcastle and Carlisle, and for the bus to this central section of the Wall. Gilsland and Greenhead would also be good bases along the bus route. However, the first bus runs relatively late (around 10-10.30am along this section), and you'd have to plan your walks carefully to make sure you meet the bus going back.

Planning is key: although you can walk as little or as much as you wish, this is not like country walking further south: services are a bit more remote, the wind and weather on the high crags rather fiercer and the potential for accidents all the greater if you aren't careful. You need good boots, preparation for all weathers - layers, waterproofs AND sunblock, some food and water.

Pausanias

Nice report. I've admired your knowledge of London pubs for a while, too.

I walked a short section of the wall around Housesteads some time back when I was living in London. It remains among my most vivid memories of the UK.

Look forward to reading more of your home discoveries.

JudyC

Thank you for sharing the interesting report, most helpful.

janisj

Wonderful report, PatrickLondon. It's been about 5 years since I last visited the Wall and your descriptions brought back great memories . . . . .

Thanks for posting.

noe847

Thanks, Patrick, for a very enjoyable read. Your writing is lyrical at times, laced with humor, but always providing good practical infomation. I had to laugh at the lamb/mint sauce. Your pictures are stunning. I have bookmarked the whole show for a definite future trip.