Hadrian's Wall, Day 6, Newcastle

On Saturday 2 May we met for breakfast about 08:30, I continued my run of full cooked breakfasts, and we set off walking about 10:00, our latest start of the week.

We continued walking through Tyne Riverside Country Park and we were passed by rowers out on the river. It was a lovely start to the day. We walked right by a rowing club just as one crew were putting their boat in the water.

We continued along the trail with the River not far away to our right for the entire day.

We left the trail briefly to visit a shop and I spotted this. Those of you who know me will understand why I liked the sound of this fast food wagon!

There was a lot of industry in the areas we walked today, with some interesting structures.

Wildlife was never far away and we saw lots of birds including this, which we think was a Thrush...

... a Speckled Wood butterfly...

... and a female Blackbird. Anne-Marie is interested in birds so it got us looking out for them.

As we continued along the riverside walk I spotted the Angel of the North statue on the horizon. We could only see it for a short time as it is on the outskirts of Newcastle.

We stopped for our lunchtime flapjacks on some perfectly placed benches out of the chilly wind ...

... and enjoyed this view.

As we neared the centre of the city there were lots of bridges ...

... and also The Stage which is a very modern building standing right next to an old church. On the river bank right in front of The Stage is HMS Calliope, Royal Navy Reserves.

A bit further along we passed St Peters Marina...

... and this car with a rather funky paint job!

We were surprised at how many young guys were fishing along here. The water is very brown so you wouldn't think there'd be much living in it.

Further along the path we came across a poorly fox. It must have been ill because it seemed very confused and out of sorts. It eventually disappeared into the shrubbery.

As we climbed a path up from the river a foreign passer-by explained that there was some wood on fire. We found it and tried to put it out with water from our bottles but it needed more water than we had with us. Anne-Marie called the Fire Brigade and we tried to describe where we were as best we could, but it wasn't easy as we only had a rough idea ourselves!

We saw quite a few ponies today, which seem to be kept in stables and small dusty yards. A few were tethered on grass so perhaps they take it in turns to be staked out to graze.

This end of Newcastle is very industrial and pretty tired looking.

About 16:10 we reached Wallsend, Segedunum. We were disappointed to find there was no fanfare, brass band or greeting by village elders, in fact there is not even an arch or sign to mark the end of the trail (as there is at Bowness-on-Solway).

As we could find no obvious end to the trail, we asked in the Segedunum Museum and they took us into the site so we could take a photo in front of the end of the Wall.

We each bought a souvenir in the museum shop and walked to where our kit bags were being held, a few hundred yards down the road. My friend Gina who lives close by came to collect us and soon after we got in the car it threw it down with rain. Lucky timing again!

Hadrian's Wall Path official length: 84 miles

According to my Endomomdo app, we walked 106 miles.

I couldn't visit Newcastle and not go to see The Angel of the North statue, so Gina took me the next morning.

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you enjoyed it; we certainly had a great time walking the trail.

Credit for the idea of doing the walk goes to Anne-Marie so I must thank her very much for that. I also thank her and Jackie for their good company over the week. As with all my challenges this year, I'm doing them to raise money for Cornwall Air Ambulance. If you have enjoyed reading my blog and would like to help me towards my fundraising goal for this year, please visit my fundraising page by clicking here 

Do drop by again to see how I'm getting on with my training for the London to Paris cycle ride (in September) and the Great Wall of China trek (in October). Monthly blogs will appear here along with ones devoted to extra events, such as fundraisers or my challenges.

Hadrian's Wall, Day 5, Wall to Ryton

On Friday 1 May 2015, we got up and made our own breakfasts.

I decided I had to have a full cooked breakfast, because I could!

There was a lovely Tortoiseshell butterfly clinging to one of the cottage's windows so I gently put it outside. It was such a beautiful little thing.

We left the cottage about 09:00 and set off back on the trail.

The weather was glorious to start with today and I began in just a t-shirt.

This only lasted for an hour or so before the cool wind was back and I had to put another layer on.

We passed our last piece of wall in a field and plodded on.

We came across St Oswald In Lee Church in Heavenfield. It's a little church in the middle of a field, built on the site of a battle.

Anne-Marie and I decided to go inside while Jackie talked to some guys who were walking the trail in the opposite direction and camping along the way, planning to complete the whole 84 miles in 4 days!

The Church was lovely inside and kept beautifully well. From the displays, it seems the Church is very much at the heart of the community.

A bit further along the trail we found a Tea Room and shop on a farm. There were cows in one of the barns munching away on hay whilst listening to 'Material Girl' by Madonna being played very loud. It seemed a bit strange but we thought that maybe the farmer has the radio on because it relaxes the cows! I bought a drink and a snack in the Tea Room and we set off again...

... through more gates and stiles than we could shake a stick at!

We walked through a small pine wood and a field of lovely fluffy Belted Galloway cows who were very inquisitive.

Such a nosey cow!

We stopped for our flapjacks on three perfectly positioned rocks on the top of some hills with panoramic views. It was stunning. Just as we finished eating, the clouds returned and it started to rain. Thankfully it didn't last long and the sunshine returned.

The landscape then changed to more open fields and a very long straight road which we essentially followed for many miles. We could see Newcastle on the horizon!

There were fields of rapeseed and other crops and a nature reserve.

There were some beautiful footpaths to walk along and when the sun was out it was glorious.

As we neared the outskirts of Newcastle the views across the valley were stunning.

We stopped for a photo call and also for a cuppa and a welcome sit down in a large Tea Room. There were gluten free cheese scones so I had to have one; it's trekking law.

Whilst walking we spotted (cue excuse for cute lamb photos) ...

... lambs ...

... pheasants ...

... more lambs ...

... calves on their lunch break ...

... a lamb with the biggest ears in the world ...

... a Robin ...

... even more cute lambs ...

... Scooby Doo ...

... and a sheep who had the most expressive sheep's face in the world!

We reached the banks of the River Tyne and rang our accommodation provider. Even though I explained we were walking, the woman just gave me a postcode to put into sat-nav. I did this and we followed it to a post office. We had walked about 20 miles by this time so weren't best pleased to be struggling to find our B&B, which turned out to be a pub with lodge accommodation. We asked some locals for directions and we discovered that we had walked right past it about a mile back! They very kindly offered to give us a lift to it and we gratefully accepted. When we finally got there to check in, we were asked to fill in registration forms. Anne-Marie had a sense of humour failure because she was exhausted!

We dumped our bags and went back to the pub/restaurant for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the food was pretty good and, for the first time during the trip, we all had a pudding! I think we had worked up a big appetite from all the walking.

If you would like to help me towards my fundraising goal for this year, please visit my fundraising page by clicking here

My blog describing our final walking day will be published tomorrow...