A stunningly beautiful day dawned on Harlow Hill and it was time to breakfast. One of my luxuries was to carry a small cafetiere. I mean, what difference will a small cafetiere make to a 20kg pack?! Fortified with porridge and coffee it was time to strike camp and head out along the wall again. Except for now there still wasn't much wall. What we did have was some fine examples of the mound and ditch which made up the Vallum- although there wouldn't have been trees growing in them in Roman times! By mid morning we had reached passport stamp No.2 outside the
Robin Hood [too early for beer, even for me!]. Heads down and a few hours more walking, however there were further outstanding examples of the earthworks that made up the frontier defenses- it's not all about the Wall!
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| Vallum on Down Hill |
By early afternoon, over a day and half of walking with a full 20kg pack had started to take it's toll, so it was with grateful eyes [and bellies] that the
Errington Arms at The Portgate came into view. A well earned rest and much refueling and re-hydration was needed.
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| Errington Arms |
A reasonable value set lunch menu was on offer, with the veggie option looking tasty. I have to say that the vegetarian moussaka really was delicious. I had a thirst, so a few pints were required. Following a good rest and a decent sampling of the
Shuggy Boat Blonde , the afternoon stretch seemed less arduous [funny that!] A few teasing remnants of the Northern Frontier were visible, but you needed to use the full range of your imagination. Still, the walking was easy underfoot, even if the packs were getting heavy. Maybe I should have packed less?!
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| St Oswold in Lee |
The landscape was opening up, we were walking in some nice countryside, there was some interesting local history to investigate and the sun was shining. Not all bad! One of the many small detours we made was to St Oswolds church. This little church is built on a small hill overlooking the convergence of 3 ancient route-ways and is built largely of recycled stone from Hadrian's Wall. Recycling of the wall was common in many areas and another reason there is not much left in many lowland places! This little church is also on the site of one of the earliest 'Christian' Battles in England, when Oswald, the Christian King of Northumbria took on [and beat] the 'Heathen' King of the British Tribes, Cadwallon in the
Battle of Heavenfield in AD635.
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| Broad Wall becomes Narrow Wall at Planetrees |
Nearing the end of our second full day walking , remnants of the wall started to become more numerous and more spectacular. At Planetrees we are presented with our largest section to date [I will be saying that a lot over the next 2 days!] , but what is significant about this section is that the base is significantly larger than the actual wall. For some reason [ time/money/energy/resources/mutiny ? ] the decision was made after the foundation had been built to make the wall less thick and a 10ft thick Wall became an 8ft Wall......
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Turret 26b, [top] Chester Bridge Abutments [centre] Bath House of Chester Fort on opposite bank [above],
Chollaford
......and so we traipsed into Chollaford on the North Tyne, weary but excited, as the promised Roman Ruins were now coming thick and fast. There was also the most spectacular sunset and reflection of sunset in the placid waters of the North Tyne. Time to pitch tent and eat. Another little campsite, Riverside Tea Rooms & Camping, was just over the bridge and on the route of the walk. Unfortunately the closest hostelry was the George Hotel , which was , unknown to us at the time, a rather posh establishment-and didn't serve bar meals or snacks. Good job we had a good lunch earlier, as there was nothing else around that was open and there was no way we could afford to eat there -even if they had let us! We were begrudgingly allowed into the bar to have a drink, but I nearly had to mortgage my tent to afford even a drink and packet of crisps. Oh well. There was always porridge for breakfast. So in the bar we sat, in our walking boots, surrounded by rich pensioners, looking slightly out of place to say the least and had a few games of chess. David is very kindly attempting to bestow some of his substantial knowledge of the truly beautiful game upon me. Hard work, but he is very patient. To use a football analogy, bit like a Premier League [David] side taking on a non league [Me] side!
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Sunset over North Tyne
Chollaford |
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Sunset over NortTyne,
Chollaford
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A stunningly beautiful day dawned on Harlow Hill and it was time to breakfast. One of my luxuries was to carry a small cafetiere. I mean, what difference will a small cafetiere make to a 20kg pack?! Fortified with porridge and coffee it was time to strike camp and head out along the wall again. Except for now there still wasn't much wall. What we did have was some fine examples of the mound and ditch which made up the Vallum- although there wouldn't have been trees growing in them in Roman times! By mid morning we had reached passport stamp No.2 outside the Robin Hood [too early for beer, even for me!]. Heads down and a few hours more walking, however there were further outstanding examples of the earthworks that made up the frontier defenses- it's not all about the Wall!
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