Romans in the mist

June 5 York & Newcastle
Lynne took me and several others to York for a conference on metaphors and story-telling - I think York because of the successful metaphor workshop we (many of the same people) had 4 years ago, and the MetNet group has had other successful workshops there earlier. It was nice being in York again, although I retraced only a little of the sight-seeing I did the first time.
I had been planning to walk part of the 84 mile long Hadrian's Wall trail for some time, but the weather forecast for my projected walk (Saturday through Tuesday) had been looking worse and worse as the time approached. Friday morning the forecast talked of 80% chance of rain (not showers) with Thunderstorms on Sunday - I began to think of either cancelling outright or changing the trip, and actually called to see if I could rent a car, to just drive out on Saturday and see the principle sights. But when I checked again on Friday afternoon (after wasting an hour and a half trying to work out alternative plans and discovering that the rental cars were all booked) I checked the forecast again. Now it was talking about 60% chance of showers Saturday and Monday, showers late Sunday afternoon. I decided, with my rain gear, I could live with that. So the trip was on again.
This morning, I caught a 7:35 train to Newcastle. It is inconvenient - the hotel does not serve breakfast before 7, and there are always 2 or 3 large tour groups there, with all the group members lined up for breakfast right at 7, so I made sure I was there about 6:45 to get in before the crowd arrived. It was a good thing, too - a line formed at the juice bar that reached over 25 people long; if I hadn't got in first I probably wouldn't have got any breakfast at all.
I reached Newcastle at 8:40 and ran full-tilt into the one thing that consistently frustrates me about England - signs and information. There is no tourist information office at the train station; I asked the travel information people and they directed me to the city center - I picked up a little Newcastle brochure that had a map of downtown, and it also showed it. So I set off in that direction, couldn't see it anywhere, reached a point that I knew was too far, walked back a ways, asked a shopkeeper, who directed me to the metro station underground. There I found a bus ticket office - they said the tourist information office was back toward the train station where I'd just come from. They also gave me a bus schedule and told me there were only two buses a day serving stops along the wall until you get well past Heddon (I wanted a schedule in case the weather turns really really vile.) I walked back toward the train station, ran into a young chap who asked what I was looking for, and showed me right to the information office - on a side street, with only a small sign on the street. They sold me a badle needed map (which is impossible to get anywhere else except by ordering it on the web - and the supplier accepts only checks drawn on English banks) directed me to the river and at least informed me that the walk runs along the river clear through Gateshead - and that there is a tourist information office on the river also, incidentally just a couple of blocks from the train station. One of the problems is that people who don't do vigorous walking have a hard time understanding what it is I'm asking, or that anyone might actually want to walk farther than a mile or so at a time. And the walk along the wall is less well known than I thought it would be.
Finally on my way. The walk along the Tyne is actually quite nice - they've spiffied it up for both pedestrians and bikes, and it's quite pretty. As I was promised, there were lots of signs, including signs at places where you don't need them, e.g. where the trail turns and there is no possible alternative way to go. Then, after an hour and a half of walking or so, the trail turned away from the river and ascended a hill, ran through a meadow - to a place where at least 4 trails headed off in different directions. There, where a sign really was needed, desperately needed, there was no sign. (I have encountered that phenomenon all over England.) I followed a bike trail sign, which turned out to be wrong and led me off in the wrong direction, as a result of which I ended up walking most of the last 5 miles to Heddon along the sides of streets. And - most disgusting of all - contrary to what the bus information people had told me, there were bus stops all over the place and I encountered a city bus every 15 or 20 minutes; at least 5 lines serve the area to about a mile short of Heddon, and at least 3 go through Heddon itself. Since the suburbs of Newcastle reach almost to Heddon, had I known that I would have taken a bus either clear to Heddon or to the town just short of Heddon, and walked all the way to Wall, cutting a day off the trip. A day spent walking through the suburbs of Newcastle would not be much of a loss. I do think had I stuck to the trail I would have been walking through more greenway and fewer subdivisions - but it would still be pretty pure suburbia.
The Hadrian's Wall web site, and the brochures about the walk, are quite misleading. They treat Newcastle like a point on the map, not a city of around a million population that reaches out 10-15 miles in every direction. They imply that you are walking alongside the wall the whole way - in truth, the first bit of the wall I saw was just outside Heddon, near the end of the first day's walk. Much of it is broken down, and the first 20 miles or so is buried under accumulations of soil - one sign, next to a flat pasture, describes a Roman fort that is totally buried under the pasture. The only reason to walk the section I walked today would be if you have a trophy collector's mentality and want to be able to brag about walking the entire distance. I don't care about that, and am deliberately omitting the first 4 miles and last 11 miles of the trail. Although it was a pleasant enough day, given that the forecast is for rain most of my trip I'd much rather have spent my one clear sunny day on a later stage of the hike, where there is more of what I came to see.
One I got out of the greater Newcastle area and up on the ridge above the river valley, the countryside is actually quite beautiful. My room, a converted attic in a farmhouse, has a lovely view out over the rolling hills, pastures, and rapeseed fields. The owner, a retired teacher / farmer, is rather eccentric but very nice.

June 6, Wall
Nice walk today, but all I saw of Hadrian's wall was a little bit at the very end (actually beyond Wall), Chester's Fort, 1.5 miles beyond Wall, and a long section of the ditch that supplemented and in some sections apparently replaced the wall (it appears the wall actually never did stretch all the way coast to coast). I decided to walk over and see Chester's fort before signing in to my hotel because rain was threatening, and I was planning to leave before the fort would open at 9 a.m. I was glad I did - the excavated portions are quite interesting, and I took several dozen photos, a few of which I will upload. As I was finishing up, a few sprinkles were hitting my face, so I shouldered my pack and headed back toward the hotel. The rain seemed to be holding off so I detoured into a pasture to see a bit of wall with the foundation of an old "turret" (tower); the two pictures aren't very spectacular but it was interesting to see. By the time I reached the hotel it was raining hard enough that, had it been much farther, I would have stopped to put on rain jacket and put the fly on my pack.
Things I wish I had known continue: There is another hotel over a mile farther down the trail and right on the trail, George Hotel, in Chollerford. I think it is a bit more expensive but would have been much more convenient. Had I had the detail map when I was planning all this I would have known. And there is at least one stop four miles this side of Gilsland, so a 20 mile stretch is not difficult to avoid if you can get the information to plan it.
By the time I had dinner (a very nice roast lamb with veggies and Yorkshire pudding) and taken a bath it was raining quite steadily. I started rethinking my plan for the next day - if the rain continues, 20 miles would not be a lot fun, and one of the sites I really want to see, Vindolanda, is a mile or more off the trail, which would add two miles. Also, I'm a bit tired of just hiking along the edge of the highway, and it appears that the first six miles out of Chollerford have that quality. So - I decided to demonstrate my flexibility and good sense and change plans. I knew I might want to do this, so fortunately picked up a bus schedule in Newcastle. It turns out there is a bus that stops at the castle (1.5 miles from my hotel - 1/3 mile from the George, but oh, well) at 9:13, and will take me directly to Vindolanda. I can either catch another bus back to Housesteads, the other major site, or walk the two miles. Then I can walk from there to Gilsland, a total of only 10 or 11 miles, bringing the day's total walking to maybe 13-15 miles, much more appealing if it keeps raining. Much more appealing anyway. If it's really ugly I can catch another bus from Housesteads. Thinking ahead, the bus also stops at a village four or five miles this side of Gilsley, so if weather is ugly or it is getting late on Tuesday I can bail out there.
Monday morning: looking at the map again I realized it is 22 miles from Wall to Gilsland plus .75 off the trail to the B&B - 23 miles in all, much more than I want to do in one day, and that includes leaving out Vindolanda. The change in plans is definitely a good idea. I am finding 14-17 mile days to be just fine, but I'm good and tired at the end of that, and adding another 1.5 to 2 hours of walking might turn it from fun into a chore.

June 7, Gilsland

Vindolanda and Housesteads are both quite interesting and I was glad I scheduled them in. Unfortunately, the bus schedule is such that I was only able to spend an hour at Vindolanda, and would have liked to have spent at least another half hour. (The bus was late so I actually could have spent more time). It started raining when I reached Housesteads, but I managed to get some good photos anyway. It rained on and off all the way to Gilsland; I managed to get my rain pants off for only about 25 minutes the entire afternoon. Most of the way is either along sections of half-ruined wall or along sections where the wall is partially visible below the turf; some spectacular sections lie along the edge of sheer limestone cliffs; unfortunately the mixture of rain and mist made it impossible to get adequate pictures of these sections.
It really is quite an experience to walk the defensive line of the Roman Empire, to see the engineering and craftsmanship, the town planning that went into constructing the forts.
By the time dinner was ready, it had started raining fairly hard. I do not think I will walk more than half the distance to Carlisle tomorrow; the host tells me that the first 6 miles, culminating in a Saxon era priory, are the most interesting, and there is a handy bus from there to Carlisle. That is probably what I will do.