3-day trip to hadrian's wall: day 2

Note: This is the third post on the trip. So to start at the beginning, go to post titled 3-day trip to hadrian's wall: part one of day 1.

Important Note: Highly recommended that you click on the photos themselves to enlarge them. Some of the landscape looks much more stunning in a larger photo than in these small ones.


Next morning, after breakfast at the Greenhead Hotel, I headed out to Hadrian's Wall again. The wall doesn't go exactly past Greenhead, so you have to walk about 15-20 minutes through farmland, etc, to get to it. This walk to the wall took me through someone's tiny backyard, where chickens and geese were roaming about (photo below). Walker's "right of way"! I love it!

Then walked through some farmland (photo below). I was still groggy but the fresh air and large expanses of the fields began to wake me up.

Along the way I took a slight detour to the Thirlwall Castle (the ruins seen behind the house in the photo below). No idea about its history. Something must've been written near the ruins but I guess I didn't pay attention. It seemed like it had been a simple structure and today its in such a ruined state that all you can see today are some high walls standing around.

Not far from here, I found the path along Hadrian's Wall going up a hill, the wall itself being nowhere in sight. But there was a deep ditch. Hmm. Anyhow, it was nice to steadily climb up the hill (photo below)...

and then climb over a stile (below). I have absolutely fallen in love with these kind of stiles.

So of course I had to try and take some photos of myself at the stile. The wind was strong at most places along the walk, so I had to use my scarf to keep my cap down and ears covered.

Soon after the stile, I reached the Roman Army Museum. I wasn't interested in the museum, so I followed directions and went along a path that took me to the foot of a pretty steep hill (cliff?). From here onwards, Hadrian's Wall kept me company as I walked up and down, up and down... along a series of hills/cliffs. These cliffs are called the Nine Nicks of Thirlwall, "nick" being an old English word for "cut" referring to gaps between the cliffs. My 'Walking in Britain" guide tells me that only six of these cliffs remain today, the rest gone from excessive quarrying. So when I finished climbing the sixth one, I was like phew! done! But apparently not. Another cliff appeared. So I don't know who did the counting. Still, it was good exercise to climb each of them, of course cursing at times and getting drenched in sweat which I could do nothing about because to take my jacket off would mean getting bitten by the wind and freezing too. (Is there anything like dressing perfectly for a hike and not have to deal with this mix of sweat and cold?)

But the climbs were worth it. Both for feeling good about myself (the "I'm getting healthy" feeling) and for the views which are superb. I never got tired of seeing different shades of green as far as the eye could see. The landscape stretched out below me on the north side of the cliffs, and when I looked east or west, I could see Hadrian's Wall climbing the edge of the cliffs in the distance (photos below).

You could choose to not climb the cliffs at all and instead walk along their back, their south side (like I did for awhile; see photo below). But if you're not going to go up and down, then... well, its not the same. You'll miss the views from the top of the cliffs. And there is a good feeling in feeling tired, though I can't say I enjoyed getting wobbly legs. Probably a sign that my legs desperately need some strenuous exercise.

At some point, Hadrian's Wall disappeared. But the walls dividing different fields/farms were also beautiful, especially when they stretched out into the far distance (photo below).

When I'd had absolutely enough of the cliffs, they came to an end and the path took me through a series of farms, each to be crossed by climbing over a stile (oh! to climb a stile!!). I must've walked for an hour through flat farmland. And all along this, there were many sheep sightings. I have fallen in love with English sheep. And when you look at them carefully, you realize each has its own personality. For a moment I even thought I might want to be a sheep in my next life.

Oh, by the way, did I mention, I've fallen in love with English sheep.
The flat farmland walk ended at a sweet little lake: actually a quarry that has come to be filled with water as it has fallen out of use. Had my lunch of bread made from quinoa and amaranth (very high protein grains), an apple and fruit bars.

And then back to walking. And again some cliffs appeared, and again it was up and down... and wobbly legs and nice views.

I could see the cliffs continuing into the distance. One of the ones I climbed, I know not which, was the Winshields Crags, which at 375 m is the highest point along the wall. Not so high, I know. But you're not supposed to compare this to the Himalayas.

At one point I passed by a small, lonely, sturdy tree, battling the wind constantly it seemed to me (photo below), as I myself was being pushed around by the wind. The only thing that prevented me from being blown away was the backpack which put some more weight on me and kept me grounded.

Finally, after 5 hours of walking (about 8 miles or 12 kilometers), I reached Once-Brewed. This is a settlement of 4 buildings, one being the youth hostel and one a visitors centre. It has this charming name because of another settlement some 500 yards from it which is called Twice Brewed. Twice Brewed is the older settlement of the two - in fact, on Once Brewed's east side is East Twice Brewed and on its west side is West Twice Brewed. Don't ask me how they got their name - I wish I knew. After a hot shower, I spent the rest of the evening in the hostel's lounge with a special ale from Once Brewed and my book. The lounge was occupied by a family playing games and because I was there reading, the father was constantly trying to quieten the kids down (who, as kids are apt to do, would screech every now and then in excitement). I told him it was actually nice to see that his kids were having so much fun (I was too tired and happy to mind the noise). To which he replied: "yes, nice to see it, but hear it?" Oh well, I tried.


Dinner, I should add, was a disaster. For some reason, the youth hostel had prepared chicken curry (or vegetable curry, if one was so inclined) and poppadums. Why poppadums? Have poppadums become part of English cuisine? Whatever the reason was, the chicken curry was at least somewhat edible if one was hungry (which I was). But I had to give up on the poppadums after eating half of the first one. How bad can a poppadum be, you want to ask me? I don't know, but these were terrible!

Nonetheless, a very nice day! And the youth hostel at Once-Brewed (17 bucks a night in the dorm) was very nice - it was full of people, it had nice common spaces and it was very very clean.