Some people said that I didn’t really know what I was getting myself in for… looking back, they were probably right.
With Autumn drawing near, people have started to ask me how my Summer’s been. So I’ve had to tell them about this…
Hadrian For Heroes
Hadrian For Heroes. It was a simple enough idea: walk the length of Hadrian’s Wall with three of my friends, and raise some money for charity. 84 miles. 5 days. Summertime. It couldn’t be that hard, could it?
There were a couple of caveats to that: I’d never been camping before, and I’d never done any serious hiking either. Hence, probably, people’s surprise that I was doing such a thing.
At any rate, here’s an account of the whole thing, because I promised I’d do one if I survived.
Day 1 – Wallsend to Harlow Hill
With some messages of good luck, a bunch of borrowed camping gear (thanks Oli), I was the first to arrive at King’s Cross Station at 7:30 on the Wednesday morning. The others rocked up shortly after, and after buying a quick sandwich and musing at why there are no bins in the station (we concluded that this was because of the grim possibility of planting bombs in them), we boarded the train to Newcastle.
Fast forward three hours, and… we still hadn’t reached the start. The Newcastle Metro, whilst admirable, proved confusing for four ‘Londoners’ (I use that term in the loosest sense). After correctly guessing which direction we should be going in, we finally reached the start point… Wallsend.
This was definitely *before* I realised quite how far 84 miles was. (Photo courtesy of Louis)
The first day’s walking was supposed to be straightforward: yes, it was quite a long day, weighing in at somewhere around 19 miles, but we figured that, on relatively flat urban terrain and with fresh legs, it wouldn’t be too hard. Indeed, for much of the day, it seemed quite easy: armed with my large supply of Dairy Milk (the only snack I’d brought along thanks to some sage advice) and fresh legs, the early miles were straightforward, even with a minor detour about half way through the day resulting in an extra mile walked. The feet were hurting a little bit, though that was probably my own fault, considering that I’d done no physical preparation whatsoever and hadn’t worn the walking boots I’d chosen in at least 4 years. That would come to bite me back later.
Then we hit the first major hill. I don’t like hills, as you’ll find out later, but after a short rain storm we managed to climb into Heddon-On-The-Wall, for a stop at a shop for some quick refreshment. Or rather, what would have been some quick refreshment, but the shop was closed. At 7 on a Wednesday.
Despite that disappointment, we were still only a few miles from our stop for the night. Things couldn’t get much worse, could they…?
And then it started to rain. And it continued raining. In fact, it would continue raining all night. Following an enforced detour due to some obstinate cows blocking the gate out of a field (the first of many encounters), and a long walk up to the campsite… we still had a tent to put up. And putting tents up in the rain, I realised, is definitely not fun. But thanks to my friends we did it with a minimum of fuss and arguing, before settling down for the night.
And then we ordered pizza. Whilst it did cross our minds that doing so wasn’t really in the spirit of camping, we all agreed that we were hungry.
Ordering pizza to the tent, while not strictly in the spirit of the great outdoors, was a good move. And a tasty one.
It rained and rained, but filled with pizza and sleeping in a warm sleeping bag, I was actually quite happy.
~
And, for posterity, here are some quotes I took from day 1:
Pink Mountain Sky 