The Kimbers Walk Hadrian’s Wall Path

Newburn to Wallsend 235,522 steps across England. We made it to Wallsend just before 1:30 this afternoon and celebrated by taking a couple of pictures and buying t-shirts and refrigerator magnets. Then we luxuriated in a taxi ride to our hotel.  We’re spending the night here in Newcastle, situated on the River Tyne as it reaches the North Sea on England’s east coast. In the morning, we’ll take a short train ride up to Edinburgh and stay there for a couple of days. The local accent here is “Geordie,” according to our taxi driver, who was very friendly and had all kinds of opinions on football (British, American, Australian, Gaelic), rugby, and cricket (“like watching paint dry”). As expected, the last day of walking was mainly on asphalt in urban areas, through some parks, and along the River Tyne. We did not mind the hard surfaces after six days of walking on softer but uneven surfaces, always prepared for the next step to be into a hole. This adventure has been everything I hoped ...

East Wallhouses to Newburn Day 6 brought us into more populated areas. The path today mainly ran parallel to a major highway, so the remote feeling was gone. We’ve read and heard from hikers that the two days at the east end of the path (today and tomorrow for us) are by far the least interesting. There are almost no remaining wall ruins, and the setting is more urban. John and I agreed yesterday, however, that two days of “boring” sounds just fine to us after all we’ve seen these past five days. The town of Heddon-on-the-Wall was charming. I feel like I could live there very happily. Local people along the way were unfailingly gracious in giving us directions, although the quality of the directions and estimates of distance were all over the place. Accents are thick up here near the Scottish border, and we often have to ask people to repeat what they’ve said. One of my toenails fell off this morning, and I’m nursing a blister. Moleskin patches, bandaids, gauze, and a night of sleep do...

Brocolitia to East Wallhouses The Carraw B & B did not disappoint. We had a wonderful supper of creamed onion soup, sourdough baguettes, and the English version of a charcuterie board—the ploughman platter (half a small meat pie, half an apple, simple green salad, a large wedge of Stilton cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, a hard boiled egg, rhubarb chutney). In the morning we enjoyed a good breakfast and set off. The innkeeper was seeing her three children off to school as we left. It was a blustery day with 14 miles to cover. We’ve had at least a little bit of rain every day but one, and at this point it doesn’t phase us. Some Bostonians we met and chatted with who were coming from the opposite direction recommended we stop at The Riverside Kitchen in Chollerford. It was the first coffee and tea house we had seen for days, and the hot beverages, scones, and clotted cream were a treat! Today was much easier walking, with comparatively flat terrain. There was still quite a bit of the wall...

Today’s leg, from Once Brewed to Brocolitia, was really enjoyable. We had a good breakfast at the Twice Brewed Inn and set off. We had just eight miles to cover, which was a delightful break after yesterday’s 14 miles of hill climbing. There was climbing today, too, but nothing as tiring as yesterday. It was really smart of the company that organized our lodging to schedule a short leg in the middle of the week! We stopped at Sycamore Gap, probably the most iconic and photographed spot on the path. “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” was partially filmed there. We walked along the wall where there were some pretty steep drop offs, but nothing that seemed too dangerous. The views were huge, green, and peaceful. It’s fun to stop and chat with walkers coming from the opposite direction. Today, there were Germans, Norwegians, numerous British people, and several Americans. We again walked through a good many cattle and sheep pastures, which has become one of my favorite parts of the journey. T...

We’ve just finished dinner at the Twice Brewed Inn, which is where we’re staying tonight. It’s in a village called Once Brewed, and it’s right at the halfway mileage mark of the path. These inns have been very pleasant so far. The rooms are small and basic but clean and comfortable. The staff have been friendly and really helpful. We reached the highest elevation of Hadrian’s Wall today—only about 1100 feet, but we worked hard for it, going up and down a series of fairly steep slopes to get there. Today’s leg was billed as 14 miles, but our trackers say it was between 16 and 17.5, so who knows. I did clock 41,000+ steps, but many were small ones as I worked my way up and down hills. The problem with over performing on my step count is that next week, Fitbit will be scolding me because my step count has decreased so much. John is being a model of patience, as he could get through these segments much more quickly than I. The Roman wall was visible throughout today’s walk and is in amazin...

Days 1 and 2 of the walk are in the books.  Day 1, starting in Bowness-on-Solway on the western end of the path and running to Carlisle, took us through several very small and charming villages (charming, but nowhere to really stop). The Hadrian’s Wall Path is reportedly very well marked, but we didn’t find that to be the case right away and added to our mileage with a few wrong turns followed by backtracking. But we enjoyed a dry and partly sunny day. Whenever I travel to a new place, even the first time I visit a friend’s home, that first trip seems longer than the second time, just because I don’t know exactly where I’m going. The first leg of the path seemed that way—like it would never end! We were worn out when we reached our hotel, and I was wondering how I could walk another day. But a good night of sleep did wonders. We had forgotten how jet lag kicks in big time on the second day after changing time zones. So we had an extra challenge in fighting that while hiking more th...

This morning, we took the train from Euston station in London to Carlisle in northwestern England. The ride was sheer pleasure, with lush, green scenery the whole way. It’s  Pride and Prejudice  type of country and easy to imagine Mr. Darcy might come charging across the landscape on his horse at any moment. England, in spring at least, will put you in a good mood. It’s no wonder so many good things emerged from this small island – the English language, the rule of law, the decorum and order we associate with the British, Lord of the Rings , Narnia. The countryside struck me as both naturally beautiful and obviously managed. Surely when the Lord told the man and the woman to fill the earth and subdue it, England was what He meant.

Packing for our trip was fun, as we gathered the many small items we’ve been collecting over the past months. We tried out our new luggage scale and discovered we’d collected a few too many fun things. Staying under the airline’s 50 pound per bag limit was not too difficult, but paring it down to the strict 20 kg (44 pound) limit of our trail bag hauler was tough. We realized we’d overdone it on protein bars and trail mix packets, so most of that stayed at home. We cut down on the amount of clothes in our bags, packed just one laptop, and have thought about what items we can jettison along the way if we need to. We haven’t been paying close enough attention to other things, apparently, as we just discovered last week that we needed to buy a certain type of Covid test to take along with us for use before reentering the US. No tests are needed before going to the UK, but getting home is a different matter. We’re waiting to board our first flight now. Here’s the obligatory PDX carpet phot...

Day after tomorrow, John and I will leave for England, carrying bags filled with gear we don’t normally take on vacation.   Several years ago, we learned about the Hadrian’s Wall Path from friends we’d met back in our Shanghai days, Jim and Marie Horak. They hiked the Path at the beginning of an extended European vacation, and the whole idea intrigued us. It’s been tucked in the back of our minds since then. About a year ago, we decided to try to make it happen in May of 2022.   The Path follows the ruins of Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans nearly two millennia ago, and runs for 84 miles from coast to coast along the “neck” of England, a little south of the Scottish border. It passes through farmlands and other beautiful scenery. It’s a fairly flat trail, aside from the hillier central portion. One guidebook describes it as a “straightforward but fairly exhausting stroll.” The Path ends a few miles short of the east coast of England, so, being sticklers, we’re planning to t...