Captain's Log

Sweltering Start

It would need four trains to take me from home to Carlisle, and then a bus trip to Bowness-on-Solway, the start (or finish) of the Hadrian's Wall Path. A couple of the train transfers had single minute digits between them. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, apparently. Two of the trains were delayed, but not by enough to affect my itinerary. I stepped off the train at Carlisle with a sigh of relief. I was sighing even more in the plastic conservatory of a Carlisle bus shelter. It was incredibly hot and not a breath of wind. I just sat there sweating, waiting for the 93A to take me to Bowness-on-Solway. 'Are you doing the Hadrian's Wall path?' asked a bearded young man who had joined the queue. 'My name's Noah' and he offered his hand for me to shake. I thought about asking him if he'd heard of any news that might indicate some rain, but on consideration, I thought that he might be offended. He sounded like a Kiwi. He was doing the walk with a baggage transfer service and wouldn't actually start his tramp until tomorrow. I thought there might have been more walkers waiting for the limited bus service to the trailhead, but unless the rest of the pensioners in the queue were intending to do it, there was only me and Noah.

We boarded the bus two-by-two and I paid the amazingly small sum of £2 to get me to Bowness-on-Solway. It was less of a bus and more of a sauna. Sweat dribbled down my face and dropped off the end of my chin. Wow! If I was this hot sat down, it was going to be murder walking. I'd purposely planned a short first day from Bowness-on-Solway to the Roman Wall Lodges campsite  near Beaumont (about 10 miles), partly because I wouldn't start walking until 13:30 and partly so that it would give me time to get my trail legs. The bus followed the Hadrian's Wall Path quite closely and I spotted fingerposts and other walkers on the roads. Eventually we came to Bowness-on-Solway. I stepped off the mobile sauna and into a furnace. At last my Hadrian's Wall Path Venture could officially start.

Trail Angel

Noah immediately headed off to the King's Arms. That would have been my strategy too, if I hadn't got 10 miles to walk before sundown. Once I'd winched my rucksack on to my back, I lurched off eastwards. My first difficulty was actually finding the start/finish of the trail. I thought there might have been huge signs indicating the point, but pretty much like the start of the Pennine Way at Edale, it is very understated. From watching YouTubes, I knew that the start was a wooden shelter with a view of the Solway. I made my way down an alley towards the river, and hey-presto, there was the shelter. Maybe it was going to be my lucky day (spoiler: it wouldn't be).

You have to walk through the wooden shelter to start (or finish) the trail. The Latin inscription above the entrance translates as 'Good Luck!' If you approach from the western end, and 'Welcome to the end of the Hadrian's Wall Path' from the eastern end. I stepped through the shelter and on to the trail. I'd only got an official 84 miles walk to Wallsend to finish the walk - although my route turned out to be a little longer at 87 miles. Easy peasy.

After about half an hour, I thought it might not be so 'easy peasy.' It was incredibly hot and I was drenched in sweat. I'd only brought about a litre of water with me, since it was only going to be a 'short day.' At the small village of Port Carlisle, I began to seriously doubt whether I'd have enough water to complete 5 miles, never mind 10. 'Would you like this?' An angel appeared out of the sunlight and handed me a 500ml bottle of ice-cold sparkling water. The apparition then disappeared back down the drive of his house again. Never before, in my 50 years of walking has anybody offered such a welcome gift. I received it with deep gratitude and gulped it down.

Paradise Flapjack

I'd read reports that the first day on the Hadrian's Wall Path isn't that interesting, compared to later stages. I think this does it an injustice; it's just different. Okay, there's a lot of road walking, but there are also fine views across the river and some pretty villages. Occasionally the trail drifted inland, but mostly the initial stretch had open views. At Drumburgh, the dreaded thirst had returned. At the end of long stone farm track, I saw a small sign placed next to a drive into a farm. I went across to investigate and found that it was an advertisement for the 'Laal Bite' Tuckshop. I followed the farm drive and it brought me to an oasis that consisted of some patio tables and an out-house building. Inside the building, there were all sorts of goodies on sale, including hot/cold drinks and snacks. I almost wept as I took a couple of cold cans of Coke out of the fridge. I looked at the confectionary and settled on two larges slabs of Paradise Flapjack (at £2 a slab). I dropped my coins into the honesty box. There were quite a few honesty box refreshment stops on the Cumbrian side of the Hadrian's Wall path, but none on the Northumbrian part.  They really were very welcome, especially today. I took a small bite out of one of the slabs of my Paradise Flapjack. Wow! I immediately felt that I could click off the rest of the Hadrian's Wall Path by sundown. I considered their calorific content as I transferred them to a zipped plastic bag, since they oozed treacle in the heat. The two Paradise Flapjacks served me well on the rest of the trail and I often would take a nibble when my energy or morale levels were low. They were so rich that it wasn't until the middle of the fifth day on the trail that I finished the last of the two slabs. It was miracle fuel.

Cows And Floods

There was a really long stretch of road walking between Drumburgh and Longburgh. The road actually gets flooded on certain high tides and so it is well worth checking when you plan your route. I didn't check, but it turned out that the tide was out and my luck was in. There were a couple of raised areas with shelters along this stretch, presumably used if you had to wait for the tide to recede. There was no sea water, but plenty of cows. Some of these seemed quite frisky and given the open area, there wasn't really anywhere to escape if they became too curious. Fortunately, their stampeding was directed at some other mysterious objects, rather than me. 

I left the long road and the Solway Firth at Longburgh and started heading inland by a mixture of field hopping and road walking. It was 18:00 by the time I reached Beaumont and I took the opportunity of a bench in the village to rest before the last 15 minutes to the campsite. It was still boiling hot, and I only had 500ml of water remaining. At least I'd be able to get a good shower at the campsite. My trail guide said that the Drover's Rest, a mere 5 minute stroll from the campsite, was the best pub on the whole Hadrian's Wall Path. A beer and some pub food would end the day nicely. I hurled my rucksack back on to my shoulders for the last time today and headed off to the campsite.

Bugger!

'Campsite closed' said the sign. Disaster! There was no accompanying explanation. The gate to the site was open and the grass pitches looked so inviting. I thought about just pitching up and then waiting to see if anybody turned up. 'Do you know of any other campsites around here?' I asked a dog walker on the lane. He didn't. He was quite sympathetic though and even offered to drive me into Carlisle. I thanked him, but said that I really wanted to walk the trail, rather than miss a bit out. I walked into the nearby village of Monkhill and sat on a bench to consider my options. I looked through my trail guide, but it couldn't offer any nearby B&Bs. I could wildcamp, but there was still about another 3.5 hours of daylight left. If I followed the trail, I'd be in the middle of Carlisle by that time and so unlikely to find a place to wildcamp. I didn't want to wildcamp now, since I didn't fancy waiting around for dusk before pitching. I used my phone to look at hotels in Carlisle. I could get a Premier Inn room for £103. I have to confess that I wept openly as I booked the room for so much money, but it was my least worst option. It did mean that I'd still have to walk the 6 miles into Carlisle with only half a litre of water. I looked around for the dog walker to see if he could provide a water refill, but he'd disappeared. The rucksack felt dreadfully heavy as I eased it on to my back. It was 18:45 and I still had a long haul ahead.

Carlisle

I walked past the Drover's Inn, the best pub on the Hadrian's Wall Path. People were drinking cold pints in the beer garden. I wondered about nipping in for one, but I figured that might be a slippery slope. I pressed on and after a stretch of rather precarious road walking to Kirkandrews-on-Eden, I rejoined the Hadrian's Wall Path.

The trail to Carlisle consisted of quite a bit of field hopping. It joined the River Eden at Grinsdale and then followed it towards Carlisle. It was actually quite a pretty trail, especially in the evening light. Premier Inn's Central hotel, isn't quite as central as the name implies. In fact it is on the eastern outskirts of the city. This basically meant that I'd have to traverse the city to get to it. The Hadrian's Wall Path followed the river through the city, but it seemed to meander a bit. I was completely out of water now and so out of desperation I decided to take a more direct route through the city centre to the hotel. This would have the advantage that I'd be able to procure a drink for an open convenience store. Curiously, central Carlisle is evidently lacking of convenience stores. There were plenty of bars open with people spilling on to the streets. I'm not sure what they made of the hollow-eyed dehydrated wanderer that stumbled past them.  Warwick Road, my route to the eastern side of Carlisle seemed endless. At last, I could see the Premier Inn Not-So-Central hotel. There was a Lidl a little distance  beyond, and I considered extending my walk to get some refreshments. I was too knackered though; I just wanted to get the bloody rucksack off my back.

'Do you want to order breakfast for the morning?' In my rush to get the room booked, I'd not ticked the breakfast option. It seemed a reasonable idea; it would set me up for the day, tomorrow. 'Yes, please' I said and I hauled my rucksack off to get my wallet out. 'Sorry, the system is slow today' the receptionist informed me, after I'd waited for 5 minutes with my debit card in my hand. It was still slow another 5 minutes later. It seemed odd for such a large organisation to have such a slow system. I gave it another minute, but with no end in sight, I said that I wouldn't bother with a breakfast and hauled my rucksack on to my back for the very last stretch of the day. My room was upstairs, of course. I had a shower, drank a hot chocolate, and then collapsed on to the top of the bed sheets. A few moments later, I woke up. It was light outside. It was day two of my Hadrian's Wall Path Venture. It had a small nibble of my Paradise Flapjack and felt good to go.