3-day trip to hadrian's wall: part one of day 1

I had been itching to go away for a 2-3 day hiking trip ever since I'd reached Durham. In fact I'd bought a Lonely Planet guide called "Walking in Britain" in Mumbai soon after I got the post-doc in Durham. Pouring over it, I finally planned a walk along Hadrian's Wall for 3 days. Hadrian's Wall marked the northern border of the Roman Empire. It stretched for some 80 miles east-west and my "Walking in Britain" guide recommended doing a 7-day walk along its entire length - starting from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the east to a small village called Bowness-on-Solway in the west. The route is one of Britain's national trails. A bus service goes somewhat parallel to the route a number of times during the day, stopping off at some important places so that people can just go visit these spots. After reading and re-reading the route, and pouring over the train and bus timetables, I planned a walk over the 3 middle days, which cover the central and most picturesque part of the wall. I decided I'd take the bus to the western-most point of those 3 days, a village called Walton, and then walk back east, staying along the way at youth hostels in Greenhead and Once-Brewed (yes, there is a tiny settlement by that name :-)). I decided to leave home at 6:30 am on Saturday morning so that I could get to Walton by 10 am.

However, Friday night I got lazy. Well, it was past midnight before I could go to bed - at the last minute before sleeping I decided that I wasn't excited about carrying a rucksack (weak shoulders that I have) and deciding that I didn't need a sleeping bag, I repacked everything I could into a smaller backpack - I traded a pair of tights for night pajamas to save space. I also gave up taking an extra sweater and decided the jacket would have to be enough. And I reluctantly gave up taking a bottle of peanut butter and 2 bananas. So by the time I got into bed, the idea of waking up at 6:30 am to start 3 days of walking didn't excite me one bit.

So again, at 12:30 am, I poured over bus and train timetables and decided that the only possible thing was to do a shorter walk on Saturday - get down from the bus as Lannercost Priory (2 miles before Walton) at 3:30 pm and walk the 6 miles to Greenhead by evening (hopefully it would not rain and slow me down). Happy with the new plan, I went to sleep and leisurely woke up at 10 am. Took the train to Newcastle at noon. From Newcastle, I took a train to Hexham which I was to reach at 1:55 pm and from where I was to catch the 2:03 pm bus to Lannercost Priory. You see how close I was timing myself! So of course, I missed the bus!! It passed by the Hexham railway station just as I got out from the station. I was so mad! The bus had been early by a few minutes! The next bus was at 4 pm! I cursed myself for being lazy and not getting up at 6:30 am and keeping to the original plan. I stood there feeling like an idiot for some time. Then decided to walk about Hexham and kill time.

It turned out that Hexham has a nice town centre with an amazing church that was built in the 11th century. Some of the stained glass detail was just beautiful. Its interior was grand but also made intimate through its details. A young studious-looking bespectacled guy was playing the church organ and my time smoothly passed by, listening to the organ and taking photos, and later having my two peanut-butter sandwiches in the sun (still feeling a little foolish since the sandwiches were meant to have been eaten after 2-3 hours of walking and not after sauntering around in a church). There was a nearby fish and chips take-away and everyone sitting in the sun seemed to be eating chips and I caved in to the temptation. They were the worst chips I'd ever eaten - soft and greasy!

PS: Click on the photos below if you want to see them larger, though it seems some of these are slightly out-of-focus and these smaller sizes hide the blurriness :-)