BlogWalkers: Hadrian's Wall: The Walk Itself: 2nd April 2007: Day 1

Everything had gone suspiciously according to plan. We arrived at Glenfield Guest House the night before and were up at 5.20 in the morning with a taxi booked to take us to Whitehaven Train station at 6.10. The train was waiting for us when we arrived and we were soon on our way to Carlisle. We had a nice cup of tea and danish in a Victorian tea-room at Carlisle train station and then caught the 8.30 train to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. There were beautiful views from the train of wonderful countryside and newly born lambs.

After completing tasks revolving around renewing passports, we bought some breakfast baps and caught the Metro to Wallsend. We began the walk at 11.20.

It was a disappointment to learn that there was nothing to technically mark the start and our amusing plan of pretending to add our names to the list of centurion wall-builders on the official stone was thwarted by it being locked behind an enormous fence.

A long walk through Newcastle began the trail and there were some decidedly dodgy areas which had to be walked through. However, the two dodgy parts were interrupted by a lovely section along the Tyne where we saw 7 bridges and St Peter's Marina which were all lovely. There were also some very interesting sculptures along the way.

It became much more pleasant when we reached Tyne Riverside Contry Park where there was plenty of seating for weary walkers, as well as toilets and an ice-cream van - yay. We sat and had our lunch and rested our tired legs. It was then cross-country and up-hill to Heddon-On-The-Wall where we stopped for a drink at The Swan; this was also our first opportunity to have a poke at the wall as there was a good section of it still standing.