Walking Hadrian’s Wall in England
Northern England, UK
By John Scheleur
Not wanting to mark my 60th birthday with just trying to blow out 60 candles, I somehow talked my wife into going along with me to Northern England to walk the Hadrian’s Wall Path – constructed by the Romans almost 2 thousand years ago and measuring 84 miles coast to coast!
Being in reasonably good shape and well-stocked in pain medication, we set out from Newcastle on the east coast of England on a gorgeous day – make that spectacular for England – with the destination of Bowness on the Solway on the west coast. Walking 13-15 miles per day for six days in a row, can be pretty exhausting, but meeting new friends along the way and spending delightful evenings in local pubs or at the B&B made the trip very special.
The path is really only strenuous in parts and that is only for two of the six days. Most of the time, you are walking on level ground. That ground however, will undoubtedly be wet – we got to see some fantastic rainbows after those all-too-frequent rain showers. And the ground will be “mined” as you pass through many fields full of sheep and cows! Still, the final get-together of all our new friends in the pub on the last night of our journey, celebrating our accomplishment, was worth any price! Of course, it was not so impressive for that oldtimer in the pub who when he heard we had walked the entire length of Hadrian’s Wall, as he remarked that not even the Romans were that crazy!
