Rambling Nana: Walking a Section of Hadrian's Wall

Date:                Sunday, 4th September 2011
Start:                Sewing Shields
Finish:              Walltown
Distance:          11.1 miles, ascent 1445ft
Time Taken:      6 hours
Companion:       Crib Goch

Route Map:

Following a last minute cancellation of my plans for the weekend, I contacted Crib Goch (Martin) quite late on Friday evening to see if he had walking plans for this weekend. As luck would have it, he replied to say that his usual walking partners were otherwise occupied this weekend and we therefore, quite hastily, proceeded to make plans for us to meet and walk together. We agreed to walk a section of Hadrian's Wall, as it is local for us both and I hadn't walked any of the Wall before, and it was further agreed that the best day weather wise would be Sunday. So, with the arrangements made, I looked forward to our 'blind date' meet.

A 10am meet time had been agreed and, as this was to be a linear walk from Sewing Shields to Walltown (approx 11 miles), following our meet and greet we transferred gear between cars and Martin drove us to our walk start point. The weather was already quite warm and sunny when we began our walk but, even though the pace was rather quicker than I'm used to, I thought I was managing to keep up quite well. There are lots of ups and downs on this stretch of the Wall but it is very scenic

However, the sun became hotter and hotter and there was very little respite to be found from it, either by way of a breeze or some shade and, eventually, I began to flag in the heat. So much so that, eventually, I had to opt to continue the walk on the lower level route which would cut out some of the ups and downs

(Sorry Martin

)

Nevertheless, we completed our walk in about 6 hours and then headed to the Milecastle Inn for a well deserved, thirst quenching, pint before I returned Martin to his car and we both headed home.

An excellent day out in great company and a thoroughly enjoyed walk

Extra special thanks to Martin for agreeing to walk with me and for making arrangements for us to meet at such short notice