Day 6: Carlisle to Bowness-on-Solway

The Path's End:

It is almost eerie how I jinxed everything by speaking too soon. Remember what I said yesterday about having walked all the way with no rain? Well, at least we can take that record off the list.

I woke up and looked out of the window to find a slow, steady rain. Initially, I was mildly happy that I got to use the “backpack rain poncho” that I had bought for the trip. So, I got ready and lugged the backpack and pulled on the rain poncho. There were several reasons that my enthusiasm for the rain faded. First, it brought on a laughing fit from the others in the group as it made me look like a hunchback. It is the kind of poncho that covers both you and the backpack. You can see in the pictures that I look hunched over because of the design of the poncho. Second, the day was warm and there was no sign of the strong wind that blew in our faces all week as we walked. The poncho trapped all the heat generated by the body while walking under it and I was sweating more than usual and was also more uncomfortable than usual. Third, while I thought it may be nice to experience some true English weather during the trip, it soon got frustrating. We walked for hours in a variety of forms of rain. It went from a light drizzle to a steady rain to a driving downpour with gusts of wind. We were soon soaked to the skin (I was less soaked than many others), and there was nothing fun about walking in the rain.

All I did was put my head down and walk steadily to get to the end. The unpleasant weather and lack of any particularly scenic spots meant that I had no urge to stop for pictures and simply wanted to get out of the rain as soon as possible. I am so happy that we only had to experience this weather on the last day. A good part of the walking was along the road and the path was relatively flat. The few points where we had to climb up and down and through the woods, the path was slick and slippery. While coming down one particularly steep set of wooden steps along a river, I slipped and landed hard on my bottom. Remember, I was one of the few people in the group carrying my full backpack. Since the others were going back to Carlisle for the night, they had only but the bare minimum in their packs. I slid down a few of the steps on my bottom and sat there for a second praying that I hadn’t hurt anything too bad. Luckily everything seemed to be in order and it was only the next day that I noticed a lump on my bottom where I had landed – and it was quite sore. With the incredible number and steepness of the climbs we had to do on days three and four, it would have been sheer hell in the rain.

Because of the weather and lack of scenery, we made great time. I was also one of the first people to leave in the morning since I had already bought my breakfast and lunch for the day the previous night. By 9 AM, I was on the trail. But, you never know how long the path for the day is or when we’re going to get to the destination. While the trail is well marked, the distances are not. Even the books that the group members had all seemed to give slightly different distances from place to place on the path. We were supposed to be doing a little over fifteen miles today. With the horrible rain in my face, I really don’t think you can even imagine my delight and sense of achievement when, at about 1:30 PM, I came across a sign that said “Bowness-on-Solway.” I stopped an old man walking along the kroad and asked him to take a picture of me in the front of the sign. He was happy to do so and then wanted to talk for a while. He also said he couldn’t really see well and that he would point the camera at me and click and I should check whether it was okay. He took his time and you can see that there was water on the lens.

I was so delighted to be at our destination after six days of walking that I slowed down and waited for Ed (one of the walkers in our group) to catch up and we took numerous photos of each other at every sign that indicated the end of the Hadrian Wall Path. It really was fantastic to get to the end of this incredible adventure.

I have learned so many things along this walk that I’ll probably be blogging about it for days to come, if I can find the time when I get back home.

I learned that I actually can manage with almost no Internet access for a week. I did manage to get a few rare connections to quickly cut-and-paste my notes into the blog, but I didn’t really get to check and respond to my work email much. The world hasn’t ended (as far as I know) and it’s actually reassuring in a way to know how expendable I am.

I learned about the amazing recuperative powers of the human body. Almost all of us were in some degree of pain at the end of each day. You could see how most of us walked with noticeable limps and groaned in agony every time we had to get up from our chairs or move in any direction. Still, by the time the next morning rolled around, we strapped on our boots and marched out for another long day of walking/climbing. I would go from serious pain the previous night to being able to set a steady walking pace along winding and climbing paths the next morning. I can’t imagine how hard the body must have worked overnight to repair me enough to allow me to do that. To be able to put yourselves through this kind of punishment and emerge unscathed is a testament to the power of nature and evolution in developing this fabulous machine we call the body.

Meeting Neil Salmon and talking about how his wife woke up one morning and found their perfectly healthy three-year-old son dead in bed taught me how it is possible to turn even the most horrific tragedy into something positive and inspiring. It would have been perfectly forgiveable for them to turn inward in their grief and curI into a metaphorical ball. Instead, they decided to set up the charity to help others who have gone through the same pain. The goal is simply to help parents who have to bury a child – something most parents don’t plan for. I fervently hope that I have the same courage and character to take difficult circumstances and turn them into something positive. While some people may lash out in anger at God and at the world around them when bad things happen to them, I am inspired by this charity to look on the positive side of things and see how I can turn the situation into one of opportunity and service.

I have learned that pain is mostly psychological. Given the healing powers of the human body, we can probably withstand a lot more pain and extended discomfort than we give ourselves credit for. When left with little choice, we will endure and we don’t get to experience anything close to the limits of our capabilities because we always take the easy way out when it is presented to us. I think I mentioned that when I was hurting on Day 2, if someone had offered to get me a taxi to the destination of the night, I would have jumped on the chance. And it may not have been a bad decision. All I’m saying is that I have learned that we can do more and handle more than we think we can. I don’t think I would have the sense of achievement I feel now if I had skipped a step in the walk. Unless we try and do things that we feel we cannot do, we’ll never know what we can do. Most of you know that I am not into exercising and working out. Still, this walk has taught me that I have more stamina than I give myself credit for. There were a few people on the walk who were significantly bigger than I am and at least visually in a much poorer state of fitness. Yet, I admired the way that they hung in there and walked all the way with the rest of us and were mostly cheerful and friendly at the end of each day. Even now, I realize that they have got to be hurting more than me. It is quite amazing that some of the walkers even attempted this strenuous walk given their physical shape. But they did and they ought to feel prouder of themselves than I do. We just have to try things we think are beyond ourselves.


I got a great lesson in simple little ways that you can make a tiring walk like this fun. All along the walk, we encountered hundreds of "kissing gates." These gates (see photo on the left) separate the different fields we walked through along the path. They keep the grazing cattle in their pasture and prevent them from wandering into neighboring fields. They also slowed us down as only one person can pass through the gate at a time. You swing the gate, walk through one side, move out of the way, swing the gate to the other side, then walk across. We encountered literally hundreds of these gates. Apparently, these were called "kissing gates" because couples holding hands are forced to let go to walk through the gate. So, according to tradition, when the couple is on either side of the gate, they kiss. One of the walking couples, Neil and Claire, decided to kiss at every single one of these gates. Did I mention we went through hundreds? They kissed at every single one except one. Unaware of the tradition or their plan, I walked in between Neil and Claire at one gate and prevented them from kissing. Yes, I did feel bad about it when I found out later. While most of us complained about sore feet, I didn't hear a word of complaint from them about their sore lips!

Finally, I learned that a hot shower can work miracles. We were sweaty, stinky and miserable at the end of each day. All it took was a hot shower to make me put my boots back on and head to the pub for a pint or two. Oh yes, and the English do make the best ales. Make sure you only go for hand-pulled ales in any pub you visit.

We ended the walk at the King’s Arms pub in Bowness. We applauded each person as they walked through the doors during the afternoon. We drank beer (Cockerhoop Ale was my choice of the evening). We played pool. We exchanged email addresses. And I could tell we all were basking in the sense of achievement at having reached the end of the wall path. From sea to shining sea. We had walked in six days from the North Sea to the Irish sea. It is not something I will do again, but I am so glad I did it. I hope to be back and do day trips along the best parts of the wall, but I’m done with coast-to-coast walking.

Unless someone finds me a good reason to do so.

Day 5: Banks to Carlisle

Hard to believe that I’m finally this close to the end. I am quite confident I can finish this now. It’s not that I’m comfortable walking. I was in some agony this evening as I walked around town, to the pub, and to dinner. Getting up from a sitting position is an exercise in face contortions, grunts and occasional buckling over in pain. And I’m not the only one. Seriously, most of us have noticeable limps and it is clear that we’re all putting our bodies through exercises they have never experienced before.

We made it to Banks in time for our coach last night and we were taken back to Greenhead where there was a hostel that could handle our group. The night at the hostel was relatively comfortable. As usual, I woke up three or four times at night, but went back to sleep relatively quickly. Once I woke to find Bill (one of the walkers) snoring loudly. It went on for a little bit and I snuck out of bed and gave him a little nudge. His snoring stopped and never came back. In the morning, I decided to forego a shower (I had showered before bed last night) and got ready to head out. We went across the street to the pub where I had a couple of fried eggs, toast, and coffee for breakfast. We picked up our pre-prepared lunch bags and got on the coach to go back to Banks – where we had stopped last night. I had talked about walking with Bill and Les, our speedwalkers who had beaten everyone by a large margin every single day of the walk. Les is a former army man who has done long walks and marathons for years.

Almost immediately after we got off the coach, he set out on the path and I scrambled to catch up. Then, he kept up a torrid pace that I tried to match. Ed (another walker from the USA) and I hoped to at least keep up with them for the first hour, but managed to keep them in our sights until our lunch break at 12:15 PM. We walked really fast. Within these first two-plus hours, we had walked almost two-thirds of the way to Carlisle. I got left behind since I took a little longer than the others to finish my lunch, but I finished only about 10-15 minutes behind Les, Bill and the others in that group. I got into Carlisle at about 2:40 PM. Now, I don’t think you realize what an incredible pace that is. Given that I took almost 30 minutes for lunch, it means that I completed a little over 16 miles in just a little over 4 hours. To keep up a 4-mile-an-hour pace for 4 hours is astonishing and, as you can imagine, I was wiped out by the time we got to our hostel in Carlisle. Unlike the previous two days, we walked along a trail with almost no remaining trace of the wall. Also, the path went through numerous meadows and fields filled with cows, sheep, and horses. Nothing that we hadn’t seen before. A lot of the walk was also along roadways. There was almost no need to stop for photographs (how many pictures of sheep can you take before you realize that they’re all pretty much the same?) So, I basically put my head down and walked along at a fast pace trying to ignore the throbbing blister on my right foot (the one on the little toe). There were no stops along the way (except for lunch) and the relatively flat path also helped us keep up the pace. Still, I am astounded we were able to cover so much ground in so little time. It was quite warm in the afternoon. I have noticed that almost every single day between 12 and 2:30 in the afternoon tends to get sunny, hot, and humid. Today was no exception. The bright side is that again we escaped any rain. If you asked anyone (even a local) if it is possible to walk all day for an entire week across Northern England and not get rained on once, they’d say it was impossible. Well, we just did it. It has been unusually dry. With the constant wind blowing in our faces, even the warm afternoons don’t drain you as much.

When we got to Carlisle, I checked in to the “Old Brewery Residences,” our hostel for the night. Of course, with my luck, the room I got was on the top floor off one of the buildings and I have to take the stairs up to the fourth floor. Still, we each get individual rooms tonight (with a shared bathroom) and it looks quite comfortable. Of course, there is still not central air-conditioning or fan.

I took the magical shower and went off in search of some items for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. We are on our own for both those meals tomorrow and Phil and I stopped in at a Marks & Spencer to pick up some items for the two meals. I also went to Wilkinsons to get a new adapter for charging my computer. Wilkinsons seems like a dollar store and I found my adapter for 78p. Unfortunately, on getting it to my room at the hostel, I found it doesn’t work. Luckily there is a US-style plug in for shavers in the light above the sink in the room. That seems to work just fine. On the way to the store, Les (who grew up in Carlisle) walked us through the spectacular Carlisle Cathedral. Many of you know how much I love seeing cathedrals and this one was just incredible. There has been a cathedral on that location since 1153. The current cathedral has massive columns and a breathtaking set of pipes for the organ. We saw the different archdeacons of the cathedral who have been buried there. One name that I would like to remember for the future is Archdeacon Marmaduke Lumley. What a great name and it will be used in my great novel that I plan to write some day. I loved the quick walk through the cathedral. The town of Carlisle also seems beautiful and a place worth returning to. The town square is lovely and the narrow cobbled streets remind me of the quaint towns in Europe we visited many years ago on our driving tour through several of the countries.

After that it was off to the Joiners Arms pub for a pint (or three) of the local brew. Again, I am sounding repetitive, but there is nothing like a hand-pulled ale. I don’t know why we don’t have hand-pulled ales in America. I am thinking of starting a chain of British-style pubs with hand-pulled ales. Someone has to educate the country that good beer doesn’t have to be ice cold and tasteless. I had a good time at the pub. Neil Salmon, one of the charity’s founders and father of Joseph Salmon, the three-year-old who died suddenly with no warning at all, had taken the train over and met us all and thanked us for our efforts for his charity. It was quite moving to meet him and talk about Joseph. Les then suggested we go to the Golden Pheasant, a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We got a variety of items and the food was really delicious. After the outstanding food (ending with banana fritters), I headed back to the hostel, this blog note, and bed.

Unfortunately, they do not have codes for hostel residents to access the wifi. So, this is another post that will have to wait until later to get online.

Day 4: Winshields to Banks

The night at the B&B was very comfortable. For the record, and the satisfaction of the group, the bed was big enough that Justin and I never needed to touch during the night. I woke up a few times at night, but was able to go back to sleep. Other than the uncomfortably hard bed, there was no major problem. It was nice to wake up and take a second shower (I had taken one the previous night) before pulling our things together and heading to the campsite for the big group photo. We were also supposed to help pack up the tents while the slower walkers got a head start.

Justin and I walked to the campsite because it was too early for breakfast at the Inn. We helped take down the tents. As I was eating my cornflakes, I realized I didn’t have my camera with me. I asked Dan’s wife, Kerry if she would drive me back to the Inn to see if I had left it on the counter there as I was paying the bill. We went there and after searching for it in my room, I discovered it had slid halfway under the covers on the bed. Luckily the camera was rescued.

Today’s walk also spanned some spectacular vistas. One of the things I think I was a little unprepared for on this trip was the fact that it isn’t just a walk, but for a good part, it is a climb. There are numerous hills and vales that we have to cross. Over many days, we’re spending almost all day climbing slopes (some of which are astonishingly steep) and slowly climbing down the steep slopes on the other side. The amount of miles we cover each day I think grossly misrepresents the effort we put into walking each day. The uphills and downhills are quite taxing. But, we’re often rewarded at the top of hills with incredible views of the English countryside. We also continue to walk along impressively preserved sections of the wall. It is astonishing that so much still remains almost 2000 years after it was built. Today, we passed the ruins of a castle that was built in 1359. The castle was mostly built with stones taken from Hadrian’s Wall. Think of this. In the 14th century (medieval and ancient by almost any standard), people would have considered the wall ancient because it was built almost 1200 years before they existed. To think we can even see a structure that is so old is quite enthralling. And to see so much of it as we walk along is amazing.

In terms of leg injury, my exceptionally painful left foot magically healed itself. I have no explanation. Today, that left foot felt completely pain-free. I could feel the usual twinges in the first hour of walking, but by lunch time, I could feel nothing. I mean absolutely nothing – not even mild discomfort. But then again, it is quite possible that my threshold of pain has changed quite a bit during this walk. In Spinal Tap terms, I think I may have reached 11 on the pain scale. Mild discomfort today may have been described as “unbearable pain” yesterday. Unfortunately, my *right* foot started acting up. I had a blister on my little toe on the right foot and it was hurting quite a bit during the walking today. Basically, every step I took, I was stepping on the blister with the toe right next to the little toe. When I got to our hostel in Banks, I reluctantly peeled off my socks to find that the left foot blisters were raw but not unbearable. However, the bottom of the little toe on the right had swollen to well over twice its size. There was a massive “bubble” at the bottom of the toe that had spread and was under the toe next to it. In true Rambo style, I pulled out my travel sewing kit and prepared to punch a little hole in it to drain the fluid. One of the other people in the room, came to me and suggested that I instead use the nail clippers to cut two large holes in the blister to drain it. He explained that tiny pinpricks would quickly heal and refill, while larger holes would ensure that the wound remained fluid free, His explanation made sense to me and I painfully cut a couple of holes in the blister and drained it. I put some Neosporin on it and bandaged it for a short while (since I had to go to dinner) with the plan of leaving it uncovered during the night so it gets less raw.

Another discovery during this walk is the power of a hot shower. Almost all of us come into our destinations limping and aching all over. I was hurting quite a bit (like everyone else). In addition to the blister, my left knee, hips (where the backpack rests all day), shoulders (the chafing from the shoulder straps), and the left arm (from the effort of using the walking stick), were all aching. However, there’s something magically therapeutic about taking a steaming hot shower and changing into clean clothes. I immediately felt better and headed to the pub across the street for dinner.

After a pint of the local brew (the starting point in any pub), I asked some of my friends along on the walk what the most “English” item on the menu was. I wanted the full experience. They said that the “Cumberland Sausage” was quite a local item and I ordered it along with the “Bread & Butter Pudding.” It was exceptionally good. Despite generally not being fond of sausage, I must say the Cumberland sausage with mashed potatoes and peas was excellent. It was spicy and tasty. It just goes to show the advantages of constantly trying something new with a genuinely open mind. I didn’t even think I would like the sausage, but I was determined to find every single opportunity to try something new and local on the visit. I hate the idea of traveling and eating, say, at MacDonald’s. It really helps to have some locals recommend something because I almost certainly would not have chosen anything called “Cumberland Sausage” and “Bread & Butter Pudding” if I had been on my own, given that the menu had numerous other choices that were unique, but closer to my comfort zone. I had another couple of pints before calling it quits and heading back to the room to type this up.

Tomorrow is another long day of walking that will end in Carlisle – the penultimate stop on our walk. I am encouraged and quite sure I can walk through the blistered feet. I don’t think I’ll ever do this walk again and that makes it a worthwhile experience. There are ways of enjoying Hadrian’s Wall by doing day trips and doing one-day walks along the wall. The walking coast-to-coast is unnecessarily painful and to me, that validates the core reason for doing this – the charity. While it is an unforgettable experience, it is a lot more than a holiday to look at 2000-year-old stones piled up in a few spots. It is a test of endurance and motivation and I’m secretly glad it has not been an easy stroll in the English countryside. I have also managed so far to stick to my personal goal of ending each evening in a pub with some local brews down my throat. They have almost all been tasty and worth the crazy price (about GBP 3 a pint). These folks certainly know how to make a good ale.

Day 3: Walwick to Winshields

Today was probably the highlight of the trip so far. After a relatively miserable night at the Bunk Barn, I needed a boost. I woke up and took a shower. Things started to go wrong right there. Remember, the showers are two buildings away from the bunk barn. So, I gathered up everything, borrowed Phil’s slippers and walked over to the showers. This time, I was smart enough to take the right most shower stall which I had heard was the one that worked best. I was half-way through my shower when I realized I had forgotten to bring my towel. Not sure what to do, I was happy when someone walked in to use the toilets (these were all in one small messy room – the five stalls were divided into two toilets and three showers). I yelled out asking who it was and hear “It’s Ian.” I begged Ian to go back to the bunk barn and bring me my towel, which he kindly did.

Then, I went back to the bunk barn and took my time packing up. I was very worried about my foot and so I used Phil’s athletic tape to bind up my left foot quite tight. The tape was very sticky and I was worried about its impact on my foot, but I had no choice. After a while, Phil asked me if I had had breakfast and I said no. Still wrapping up my things, I walked over to the main house and asked for breakfast. The lady looked startled and said that she had been told we were all done. I told her there were still six or so of us in the barn who needed breakfast and this set of a panic in the kitchen. They said they needed to go get more supplies and there was a little shouting back and forth between the people in the kitchen. Seeing what I had set off, I told her I would just make sure that the others in the barn needed breakfast. I ran back to barn and discovered to my horror that I was the only one who still had not had breakfast. I went back and let them know and there was a sigh of relief. They asked me what I wanted and I said, “anything.” “You don’t want a full English breakfast, do you?” she asked in a voice that made it clear that she was hoping my answer was no. I took the hint and asked for two fried eggs and toast along with some orange juice and coffee. As I was enjoying this breakfast, she stepped in and informed me that the last group was actually waiting for me outside and I needed to hurry up. I gulped down the last of the breakfast, filled up my Camelbak and headed out to join the last group to leave the Barn.

I had promised Phil that I would walk slower today in exchange for borrowing his slippers for my shower. I also assumed I would walk slower because of my injury. Also, today was supposed to be the day we would see more of the actual wall, something we have seen very little of so far. Both of us wanted someone who would take photos of us with the segments of the wall we’d see today.

It was barely fifteen minutes into our walk that I realized it was going to be hard. I was walking slower, but Phil was much slower. The truth is that it is very hard to walk slower than your natural pace. Especially since I was in pain and wanted to keep a steady gait going, I found it difficult to constantly stop and encourage Phil to move faster. So, I finally gave up and tried to walk at my normal pace. It didn’t take long for me to leave Phil far behind. The pain was bad but nothing like yesterday. I just kept going and discovered that if I planted my left foot on a rightward-sloping slope in such a way that it landed at an angle, the pain was much less. I tried to do this whenever I could. I also had borrowed Archie’s walking stick and that helped a great deal. I am convinced that it is going to result in significant shoulder aches tomorrow though, since I am offloading a lot of weight on the stick now. If I said today was painless, I’d be lying. But, it certainly was not as excruciating as yesterday. I’d call it extreme discomfort. At one point in the afternoon, I felt a sharp pain in the foot and it almost immediately dissipated. The pain in the foot seemed to lessen considerably. Again, it isn’t painless, but it certainly seemed to drop. Maybe I strained the tendon back into its spot or something. The rest of the walk was only under moderate discomfort.

One problem was that the bandage I had tied this morning was cutting into my foot at the back. I had discovered this problem in the morning and used my nail clippers to slightly relieve the stress in the back by cutting part of it off right behind the heel. When I stopped for lunch, I took off my left shoe and sock as I could feel something that seemed like a blister. I couldn’t see anything and because the plaster was not feeling very good, I decided to take it off. Big mistake. There were about three blisters under the plaster. One on the left side of the foot, a small one on the right side of the foot and a fairly nig one in the center. When I peeled the bandage off, it took a chunk of skin along with it. I poured a bunch of Gold Bond foot powder on the open blisters and put my socks back on and kept going. I did have two more ibuprofen with lunch (so I am now operating regularly on 6 a day) and I was surprised at how little trouble I had the rest of the walk. Later I found I have another rather filled up blister under the little toe on my right foot.

And the scenery today was spectacular. We walked through woods, through sweeping fields of pasture, and along steep cliffs. We even got to walk on the wall during one small part (the only portion where you can actually walk on the wall). The terrain was very rough. There were many exceptionally steep parts both going up and down. It seemed like we were going up and down all the time, but we must have been trending up as we passed the highest point of the wall during the climb. It’s all downhill from here! We really had spectacular scenery almost throughout the day today. Plus, we got to walk along the wall most of the way. It was also a significantly shorter walk than yesterday and so I was very happy.

As we walked towards the “Twice Brewed Pub” at the end of our walk today, I was chatting with one of the walkers, Michael. We joked about trying to beat each other to the pub because we had found out that they had some rooms to rent. Given our miserable experience last night, we both were not looking forward to another night in a tent on the floor or in a bunk barn. We went in to the pub and I tried a pint of a local brew. Then, I asked one of the barmaids if they had a room available. “We have one double,” she said. “How much?” I asked, ready to pay up to about fifty quid (see, I’m adopting English slang!) for a comfortable room for the night. “82 pounds,” she said. As I was debating this, Justin, one of the other walkers came up behind me and said that he would really be interested in the room if I would share it with him. Since I had already spoken to Michael (and there was only one room), I wasn’t sure. Finally, Michael backed out and said Justin could have the room. We both agreed to share it. It was only later, when we were sitting at the pub when one of the people mentioned, “You know, a double means one bed, don’t you?” “Huh, how can a ‘double’ mean one bed? Then why is it a ‘double’?” I asked, thinking they were joking? “A room with two beds is called a twin. A room with one double bed is a double,” they said. I went to the room and checked, and sure enough, it did have only one bed. By this time, I was too vested in this comfortable room with an attached bathroom and the prospect of being in a tent at the campsite looked even less appealing. I looked at Justin and we agreed that we’d manage. Of course, the jokes started almost immediately. I heard all about big spoon, little spoon, head-to-toe, Velcro, and all kinds of other lewd things from the group. It was all just envy, of course!

Not only is the room comfortable, but it has wi-fi, which allows me to catch up on the blog posts. I’ll try and add a few photos today. But more will come later.

Day 2: Heddon to Walwick

Today was a bad day. I think I gained a little insight into some tired American football clichés – “Play through the pain,” and the admonition to running backs “Just worry about the next first down – not the next touchdown.” During most of the day I was in excruciating pain. I’m not talking about extreme discomfort – I’m talking about sharp pains that literally brought tears to my eyes at times.

The day started quite well. I woke up comfortably at 7 AM and took another shower and an Aleve. I am sure that I won’t have this luxury the next few days when we will all be sharing rooms and bathrooms. We came down for a fantastic English breakfast with corn flakes, bacon (what we would call Canadian bacon), an egg sunny side-up, sausages, buttered toast, marmalade, and coffee. It was delicious and filling. If you ever do the walk, this is a B&B I would heartily recommend. Since our “Ironsign B&B” was down the Hadrian’s path about two miles from our starting point for the day’s walk, we took a cab back to the Houghton North Farm Bunk Barn where everyone else was staying. We realized that we could just leave our backpacks at the B&B and pick it up as we walked past the place two miles after leaving for the morning. When we got back to the Houghton North Farm, we were given our packed lunches. One of the other walkers, Jo, offered to carry my lunch pack since she had her backpack. I agreed.

I got separated from the group barely fifteen minutes into the walk for the day. Archie, my walking companion reminded me that we were fast walkers and that I may not want to get too far ahead of my lunch pack. I agreed and decided to wait for Jo and my lunch before catching up with him. I stopped and waited as all the different walkers went by me with no sign of Jo. About 20 minutes later, she came by with a small group. Unfortunately, her water pack was leaking and they had to stop and fix it. I took my lunch from her and walked on. About twenty minutes later, I walked by the Ironsign B&B and picked up my backpack. By this time, I was at least a mile behind the others (except Jo and her group). It didn’t take me long to realize something was wrong.

As I was walking, I was getting increasingly concerned about my left foot. Right along the left outside edge of the foot was a progressively sharp pain with every step I took. I tried to “shake it off,” but it kept getting worse. About an hour into the walk, I was starting to wince with every step I took. Another mile later, I was wondering if I was going to make it. The pain just kept getting worse and I was noticeably limping by this time. Every step sent a sharp pain along my foot. Within another half hour, each step was sending a sharp pain up my leg. By 11 o’clock, I was in such unbearable pain that I occasionally had tears fill my eyes. I just decided to focus on taking one step at a time. I had fleeting thoughts of calling a cab, calling off the walk, finding a ride to the next destination, etc. I really couldn’t imagine how I was going to walk all the way in this excruciating pain. But, having no choice, I just kept going. “Walk through the pain,” I told myself. I tried different gaits, different limps, transferring all the weight to my right foot, etc. Some of these tricks worked for a while but the pain always came back. I dreaded stopping because it would mess up some gait that was working.

I had decided in the morning that I would stop for lunch at 1 PM. At about 12:45, I passed by a bench and decided to stop and was just about to take my backpack off when I glanced at my watch and saw it read “12:46.” I thought it would be cheating if I stopped early (and it would make my post-lunch walk longer) and so decided to soldier on. “Walk through the pain …” I finally ran into Dan and the rest of a fairly large group at The Errington Arms, a nice looking pub. I stopped for lunch and asked Dan for a bandage. I took off my shoes and thought that if I bound my left foot tight with a bandage, it may help with the pain. So, I tried to bind my foot as tightly as I could. Dan had a map and during their conversation, I discovered that not only were we still about 8-9 miles away, but that our B&B was quite a bit outside of Walwick (pronounced “Wallick,” of course). Apparently, it was a lot more than 16 miles we had to do today.

The packed lunch was actually quite excellent – egg and tomato sandwich (It’s tom-ah-toe, not tom-aye-toe), lemon drizzle cake, sausage pastry, an apple, and orange juice. I ate lunch, drank a diet coke, and I popped two ibuprofen before setting out again after about a 25-minute break. It was still extremely painful. I just wanted to get to the destination. I think it helped that I walked alone all day – I would have had a hard time not complaining about the pain if there was someone to listen.

I also encountered my first chunk of the wall. All along, we’ve been following the “Hadrian’s Wall Pathway,” but have seen very little of the wall. Finally, I encountered a nice 15-foot section of the wall that was marked. I tried to set up the self-timer and took a few photos. I think I tried to smile – but given my foot pain, I don’t know if I managed it.

The scenery was beautiful. It varied from vast meadows and fields of grain dotted with sheep to picturesque trails through some woods. I tried hard to enjoy the scenery. It wasn’t too bad since the scenery changed every now and then – it wasn’t constantly changing. So, I had enough stretches of the same view that I could put my head down and make progress (that’s all I was focused on). The pathway goes through many, many pastures that belong to private owners. So, there are a variety of “styles” of turnstiles – most of which need to be climbed over. And, it isn’t always an easy climb. There are sometimes as many as four or five steps down from the turnstile you’ve just climbed. At one point, I had to walk right past a bull that was sitting on the path. I was nervous because there was a story about a lady doing the walk recently who was killed by a bull. She was walking with a dog that barked at the bull and it charged.

Unbelievably, by about 4:30, the pain in my foot turned into a dull ache. This actually helped a lot. The sharp pains were much worse. I think my foot was so swollen that the shoe was acting as a sort of tourniquet that helped ease the pain a little. Or, it may have taken a couple of hours for the ibuprofen to really kick in. At one time, I was going downhill and discovered that the pain went down as I speeded up down hill. After that, I actually started running down every down slope so I could make some painless progress. Any points where the pain was down, I would speed up.

I finally made it to the Greencarts Bunk Barn at about 5:30 PM. Given the long out-of-the-way walk to get to this place, it should have been better. This is really rustic. The barn where we are all staying is, well, a barn! It just has a bunch of bunk beds moved into the barn. When I went for a shower, the water just stopped after ten minutes. Since I was still covered with soap, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I found that if I turned off the water for about 30 seconds and quickly turned it back on, I would get one quick spurt of water. Since I just wanted to get the soap off, I did this several times and managed to get most of the soap off. I then went into one of the other bathrooms and used the sink to wash out my socks and underwear. My T-shirt of the day gets left behind here. I really should have brought some flip flops. It’s a pain to get my shoes on every time I need to walk to the bathroom (which is in a neighboring building). If you’re ever on Hadrian’s Walk, my advice to you is to skip Greencarts Bunk Barn.

It wasn’t all bad. Dinner was actually quite good. But then again, when you’re that hungry, anything tastes great. There’s a tiny TV on a table here (the picture keeps disappearing every now and then), but the crowd is watching the Netherlands play Uruguay in the World Cup semis. We have two Dutch walkers in the group and one of them, Arjan, has brought a flag and even painted his face. The mood is good now as Holland is up 1-0.

My foot isn’t hurting at all now. But every time I get up from the chair my knee hurts and my entire body aches. If anyone needs to know that I am suffering through this walk for a sense of schadenfreude, they can smile now.

I bet tomorrow will be a better day.

Day 1: Wallsend to Heddon-on-the-Wall

I didn’t think I would start having doubts about this walk on the very first day, but sitting here resting my feet at the Houghton Farm B&B, I’m wondering what I’m in for during this walk. And the conditions today were as ideal as they could be. The weather here si perfect for walking. It was cool and cloudy almost all the way. I would guess that the temperature was in the 60s climbing occasoinally into the low 70s when the sun came out. There were a few drizzles along the way, but nothing that lasted too long or was even heavy enough for me to pull out my jacket or cover up the backpack.

Gagan dropped me at Wallsend station at about 9:30 in the morning. Even though we were only supposed to get there at 10 AM, there were already a few people there. The larger group didn’t get there until a few minutes after 10 AM and we set out on our walk soon after. The first depressing part was walking for about an hour and turning the corner to find the Tyne and Millennium bridges in front of us. Of course, these are close to Newcastle town centre and I had gone by it on my way to the Wallsend station. Psychologically it just seemed that we hadn’t made much progress since all that walking had just got me back to where I started. As we were walking by the Millennium bridge someone mentioned that it was going to go up in about ten minutes. Since Srini had explained to me earlier a little about this high-tech bridge, I was intrigued to see it go up. It was really quite an impressive sight and we kept going after watching it go all the way up.

After a while, I caught up with Archie, Dan’s father-in-law. I found he waslk walking at a pretty solid pace that seemed to match mine. As I suspected, it is actually a little harder to walk slowly and so it was nice to find someone who walked reasonably fast. We quickly moved near the front of the pack and kept going. Frankly, although I enjoyed keeping that torrid pace, it was very different than what I anticipated. I thought it would be relatively slow with frequent stops and lots of conversation. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t much to see on this first leg. We walked along the river and crossed a couple of motorways as we followed the path. There was absolutely no sign of any wall along the way and so we just kept walking. In fact, our first stop was at 1 PM on a bench for lunch. Srini had made a couple of kabab rolls for me that were fantastic. I also owe Gagn a vote of thanks. She gave me two individually wrapped rolls and I insisted that one would be enough. She pushed me into taking both. Am I glad I had two. By 1 PM, I was definitely hungry and had no trouble finishing both the rolls. And, they were really delicious. The lunch on the bench slowed us down only about 15 minutes and we quickly got back on the path and kept up our steady pace along the path. A little after 2 PM, we came across a nice looking pub along the river called The Boathouse and I decided to stop for a coffee and a toilet break. Yes, this was my first stop of the day! We ran into a couple of walkers in the pub and they gave us the encouraging news that we were barely four miles from our destination of the day. We had walked about 12 miles in less than 4 hours. Encouraged by this news, Archie and I set off on that last leg.

After a while, we actually came to a sign that told us that Heddon-on-the-Wall, our stop for the night, was only 1 ¾ miles away. I remember turning to Archie and saying “We’re almost there!” Famous last words. It turns out that starting at that point, it was all uphill. Okay, I was feeling fairly good at that point even though right after the Boathouse stop I had a twinge in my left calf that would not go away. But, it didn’t get any worse even though Archie noticed and asked why I had a slight limp. Still, when we started going uphill, we slowed considerably. Then we went uphill some more. After going uphill a little more, we got to town and had to go uphill some more to get to the Farm where a big part fo the group was staying. I was scheduled to stay at another B&B a few miles away, but we were gathering at the Houghton North Farm and a taxi had been arranged to get me and a few other people to the Ironsign B&B after dinner. I’ll admit it was tough. Still, Archie and I got there at exactly 4 PM. I sat in their nice lounge and relaxed. My calf is still “twingey,” but I hope a couple of Ibuprofens tonight and tomorrow will take care of it.

The other thing I learned was that I had grossly overpacked. It *is* a lot different walking with a full backpack and my backpack really was very heavy. Honestly, it was not even easy to pick up off the ground. Now, thinking about it, why do I need 8 pairs of underwear for six days of walking? Exactly what was I planning to do with the extra underwear? I also carried 8 pairs of socks for the six-day walk. Since underwear are not that expensive back home, I have decided to leave them behind each day rather than carry that extra weight. Really – the backpack is HEAVY. Anything I can get out of there would be worthwhile. There were times today when I was wondering if it was even worth bringing this laptop with me. So, the decision has been made – underwear must go!

The early arrivals were chatting with the owner of the farm and I mentioned that the last two miles were really hard for me. She said, “You think this was hard? Wait until tomorrow. And it’s the last two miles is very steep uphill.” “This was nothing,” she repeated to make sure I had heard. “Tomorrow is really steep. There are hills up and down all the way and then the last two miles are really steep and it’s all uphill.” She pronounced “uphill” so it sounded like “oophill.” She was vigorously nodding her head with pursed lips and raised eyebrows. Not an encouraging sign.And, tomorrow is our longest day. We are supposed to be walking 16 miles tomorrow. Now I know it is all uphill and downhill – ending with a long, steep uphill climb. Maybe being prepared for it will make it easier. If not, there’s always Ibuprofen.

Tynemouth Castle - Happy Independence Day

I woke up slowly and enjoyed relaxing at home in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. My cousin's wife, Gagan made some fantastic aloo parantha for breakfast and I had more than I probably should have.

We then walked across the street to Jesmond Dene (a spectacular park area right outside their home) and took in the sights despite an occasional drizzle.

My cousin dropped me off at Tynemouth Castle, right on the North Sea for our pre-walk walk. Our starting point for the walk tomorrow is Wallsend (yes, Wall's End) station. A few of the folks had the bright idea that if we walked about 5 miles on Sunday from Tynemouth castle to the Wallsend metro station, we will truly be able to claim that we walked from coast to coast across England. So, at about 3 PM, I dipped my hand into the North Sea at Tynemouth castle and we headed off on our walk a little before 4 PM. The walk itself was along city streets and had no particularly interesting views. We made it to the Metro station at about 5:30 PM. I was none worse for the wear after this relatively short walk (even though I didn't carry my backpack with me) and was ready for "Stage 1" on Monday by the time we reached our pre-walk destination.

For dinner, Srini took me to a Teppan-Yaki Japanese restaurant where I enjoyed another specatcular meal. Teppan yaki is a style of Japanese cooking done on an extremely hot griddle. The restaurant patrons sit around the large stainless steel griddle and the chef comes to the table and whips up a meal right at your table with some spectacular theatrics. He juggles eggs, taps his utensils on the steel grill that makes it seem like he's performing a concert for the hungry patrons. We all took turns trying to flip up an egg off the griddle and catch it in our chef hats. Both mine went splat - on on the griddle in front and one on the griddle behind us. No one was injured. The food was delicious. We got back around 11 PM and I will head to bed after typing up this short note at around 12:30 AM. Photos will all be added later.