Hadrian's Wall, Day 0

[purplecat]

Staying in a Guest House at Whitley Bay which appears to be mostly under construction (Whitley Bay, not the Guest House). Spanish City (of Dire Straits, Tunnel of Love fame) seems to be mostly gone but it looks like regeneration is in progress. We had a nice locally brewed beer before dinner in an excellent restaurant.

Tomorrow we get the Metro to Wallsend and then the walking starts...

Comments

[isis]

Woohoo! Are you actually walking along the wall? I've seen it on both ends but not in the middle.

[purplecat]

Yes!! A company is shipping our luggage from B&B to B&B meanwhile we'll be walking the Hadrian' Wall path which almost (but not quite) follows the line of the wall - today we're mostly walking along the Tyne because, presumably, the path of the wall itself is under rather dull Newcastle suburbs. We start at Segdunum though.

[sir_guinglain]

Along a number of busy roads, too, and at least one crowded shopping street. Do you get sent up Dog Leap Stairs? The original route was buried under the railway bridge before archaeologists got to it, but it might have originated from a stepped section of the wall.

[purplecat]

No we didn't go up the stairs. We stuck pretty close to the Tyne most of the way only heading north when we headed towards Heddon-on-the-Wall

[sir_guinglain]

I really wouldn't like to be a walker negotiating the A1/A69 roundabout, even if it did mean seeing the Denton section of the wall, small though it is. The Heddon section is the first substantial section worth seeing, true.

[purplecat]

No we didn't get that far North. We crossed the A1 using a footbridge at, I believe, Denton Dene.

[sir_guinglain]

Enjoy! I must get round to it one of these days...

[purplecat]

Hopefully it will be fun.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Hope it goes well! I'd like to walk Hadrian's Wall some time, but am somewhat deterred by the need to book guesthouses in advance, and thus being committed to carry on with it whatever the weather. Of course, whenever I walk the Isle of Wight Coastal Path, when I bus home every day and could therefore cancel at any time, I also act as if I'm committed to it, since it's The Plan and The Plan, as we know, is sacrosanct. So perhaps it's no different. One day, maybe...

[purplecat]

Speaking at the end of Day 1, I think we'd have done better to plan shorter walks each day in order to allow more time to be spent at the various sites. Although that has been compounded by not really realising that our actual walking speed if taking things easy, stopping for photos and consulting maps is under 3 miles an hour (only just under, but it makes a lot of difference to the time over a long walk) where we'd been reckoning on about 3.5 miles per hour.