Day 4

Well today was hard work lots of crags to climb but the views were
worth it. We also gave an offering to Mithras at his temple when we
passed by and was rewarded with a day of sunshine! We also visited Housesteads Fort which was quite a place and sat for a break at Sycamore Gap which is where they filmed the meeting of Kevin Kostner and Morgan Freeman in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Due to the steep drops from the crags there was no ditch built along a large stretch of this part of the walk. It is quite amusing as you pass some of the mile castles in this section as it would have been impossible to pass through the northern gateways due to the sheer drops on the other side, it seems a mile castle was built every Roman mile, whether it was appropriate or not!


Mitras's Temple..thank you Mithras!



Milecastle Number 37


Sycamore Gap, no sign of Robin Hood!!

Day 3

Well the rain stayed off most of the day and we made good progress and
saw some large sections of the ditch and valum, and at the end of the
day we visited Chesters roman fort which was quite an impressive
structure with a large part of the walls remaining in particular the bath house which has particulaly high sections remaining. We also found a very nice oasis at St Oswalds tea shop where we had a very nice cup of tea and baked potato for lunch which was quite fortunate as the previous place where it showed a tea stop symbol was closed and we were to early for the pub! We also got to see the first real visible remains of a mile castle (19) although covered in turf still obviously visible, although stood on it was a group of cows, which looked quite amusing as though they were gaurding it! Tomorrow the hilly sections begin!



Cows gaurding Milecastle number 19



Bath house at Chesters, possible lockers for the soldiers clothing before entering the bathing rooms.

Day 2

Well end of day two which has taken us through the rest of Newcastle up onto the line of the wall itself at heddon on the wall which of course was a photo opportunity! We found a well placed cafe and filled ourselves with tea and cake before heading on. We then picked up the line of the ditch and the valum, the wall itself was not visible at this point and after realising that if we sped up we could get to the pub in time for food so we sped past the reservoirs to the call of food. We managed to get to the Robin Hood inn just in time for a very needed pub lunch! Just a few miles on we reached our campsite and a well earned rest and a chance to dry off after getting caught in a downpour! We also used our poles for the first time today, and although at first we felt a little silly I hate to say it but within a very short time we realised how much of a help they are when you are carrying everything you need on your backs!



First time setting up camp, something we got used to doing quite efficiently!

Day 1

Well end of day one and a bit of an adventure to say the least! After
arriving at kings cross to find nothing going further than Doncaster
so thanks to Virgin and Northern rail for rescuing we got there via carlisle only 3
hours later than intended! Well we have done the first 8 miles which
went well apart from a few sore spots from my rucksack! Tomorrow is
about 13 miles and we get to see the first real bit of the wall. The first section of the walk was all road and pavement walking which is always harder than walking on softer ground, at least there was some interesting structures along the way to keep our minds off our suffering bodies!


Baltic Art Centre




Cranes at Swan Hunter ship yard at the start of the walk next to the Segedunum Fort.

A weighty subject

Well our rucksacks are packed and ready to go as you can see from the photo below where we trying them out, looking at the photo they don't look too heavy although looks can be deceptive, we were very surprised that what seems so little can weigh so much! As you can see we needed to lean against each other to stay standing...well OK not quite that bad but I think we will be glad we are taking walking poles...neither of us thought we would ever be saying that!

One week to go!

As from tomorrow there will be just one week to go before our adventure along Harian's Wall Trail, our (very heavy) rucksacks are packed ready and we are as ready as we can be, with a few ingenious solutions to keeping the bulk and the weight down, although after picking our rucksacks up you may think differently though! I now really feel for those who backpack around the world with their life on there backs in the very large rucksacks!

Last real training!

Well these next two weekends are our last chance to get some serious training in before the big event as we have a fairly packed schedule between now and then, hopefully the weather will be kind and we can pack a few miles in over the next two weekends!