Day 7

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 it would be. The English countryside has been a treat throughout, the people we’ve met along the way enjoyable, the places we’ve stayed overnight have all been great, and the challenge of the walk turned out to be just right. It was a challenge. But we didn’t come over here for a leisurely stroll—we came to push ourselves some. As one woman we talked with at breakfast this morning said, the guidebook descriptions of rolling hills and easy walking understate things quite a bit. There are steep climbs and areas where a fall would be a big problem. After Day 3, I wasn’t sure I’d make it through to the end. I wish someone had told me that day was by far the most difficult. After that, the bigger challenge was staying on top of new blisters while continuing with 14-mile days. By the way, John’s feet required no special attention and are none the worse for the wear, but mine are going to need a little bit of recovery time. All that said, we never felt endangered during the walk. We’re glad we did it!