One of my goals for 2017 was to complete a multi-day hike and in late October I thought it would be a good time to tick it off before it got too cold. Another caveat of the goal was that it would be try to be as self-sufficient as possible. We would carry all the things we would need to eat, camp and survive in a worst case scenario. Kind of like bug-out / prepper scenario training. This post will detail the first day of the hike.
A friend had recently been visiting family in Newcastle and we got inspired by Hadrian's Wall. The wall was the northern-most frontier of the Roman Empire and stretched almost 100 miles from east-to-west across northern England. There is speculation as to the purpose of the wall as the threat from the sparse, disorganised tribes in now-Scotland didn't serve as much of a threat to the advanced Romans. Some theorise it was just to keep the soldiers focused and busy to prevent them going awry.
We hadn't been doing much running or hiking recently but thought that spending all day walking couldn't be too hard, right? We set a goal of 4-5 days to complete it and bought bus tickets from London to Newcastle, where the wall begins. I didn't actually have any dedicated hiking boots so bought myself a pair about 10 hours before the coach departed. Very, very wise move.
Castle on the coast at Tynemouth
After taking a train from the centre of Newcastle, we arrived in Tynemouth where we would begin our 100-mile walk from the east coast North Sea to the west coast Irish Sea. Although Hadrian's Wall didn't go this far, we thought it would be cool to walk the extra 10 miles to officially do coast-to-coast instead of 'just' the wall.
After a rather brutal baptism of fire adjusting to hiking with heavy backpacks - and just walking in general - we made it to Segedunum which is a Roman fort in Wallsend, where the original wall terminated. Finally seeing some of the original parts of the wall was awesome and inspiring for the rest of the walk. We were now on the official trail and could worry a little bit less about directions.
Coincidentally named? I think not.
Some remains of the original fort at Wallsend
What is left of a Roman bathhouse
Only 84 miles to go!
We had a goal of around 20-25 miles to walk so we didn't spend too much time gawping at some stones in the ground. We made haste to the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The Tyne is the name of the river we were walking along. The walk into Newcastle was a simple trudge along the river bank on a paved track. Eventually, we saw the famous bridges of Newcastle appear in front of us. Despite it being such a lively city, we didn't even stop to explore. We were too focused on getting into the more scenic countryside.
We felt like zombies or aliens visiting from another planet. People going about their daily lives whilst we were on an epic, exhausting journey across the country. However, we did bump into a couple and their dog who were hiking the other way. They said they were 6 days deep and had experienced some rainy weather. Our naive optimism about the speed and climate of our trip took somewhat of a knock. We continued on regardless.
Newcastle bridges on the horizon
Tasty-looking mud
We were now out of Newcastle and into some rather picturesque countryside. Still following the Tyne, however it was now a bit smaller as we were walking upstream. The sun was beginning to set and we still had 10 miles (16km) that we wanted to walk. I have done numerous 24 hour bike rides and other night challenges so wasn't too fazed about walking in darkness. The route wasn't technical either, so it wasn't really a dangerous situation. At this point, the dude I was walking with had a sudden blister burst on his foot. We would now be limping to the next spot. I think the fact that because the terrain was pretty much entirely concrete along the river and through the city it gave our feet a little bit more of a beating than dirt or grass would have.
We set sights on a small town called Heddon-on-the-Wall that was only a few miles away and hoped we would find a shop or restaurant where we could get some warm food to perk us up. Unfortunately, it was up a rather long and steep hill. Our progress was slow but when we arrived we found a pub and decided to get ourselves some chips (thick cut fries for y'all Americans). Chips would soon become the meme of the trip.
Escaping the city
Hiking in darkness
Last minute comfort before camping
After a few hours in the pub, we exited for the cold and darkness. As we said goodbye, the dude who served us at the pub asked us where we would be staying that night. I guess it would have seemed rather strange seeing two people walk off into the darkness at gone-9pm in a small town in the countryside. We couldn't answer because we didn't even know ourselves.
We ended up walking for a few more hours into the night along some extremely straight roads which I assume followed the original Roman tracks. The stars looked epic. I'm from London so we rarely get a decent glimpse of them due to the excessive light pollution.
After a few more hours of walking we found a secluded section of the public footpath. There hadn't been many spots that were sheltered from the road so we took the opportunity to roll out the bivy bags and get some kip hidden by a bank and hedge. A total of over 25 miles walked on the first day. Maybe we had gone a little bit too hard. We were going to find out when we woke up in the morning.
The story from Day 2 will be coming soon! ~ ~For those of you who are into maps and data. Here is the route we took for Day 1 and the associated statistics. Almost a marathon!
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Thanks,
Joseph