Hadrian's Wall, Day 3, Walton to Twice Brewed

On Wednesday 29 April, we met in the restaurant of Park Broom Lodge for breakfast at 07:15 and I again ordered full cooked breakfast. It wasn't as good as that at the previous B&B, with much smaller portions, but at least there was no history lesson to sit through! The staff were friendly enough but it felt like they all had an arsey side that they were just waiting for the opportunity to let out!

The owner drove us [badly!] back to Walton about 08:30 and we picked up the trail exactly where we had left it the day before. It had been raining heavily over night so it was pretty wet under foot but the sun was shining and we could see blue sky, for a while at least.

After only about half an hour we had to walk through a large field with a couple of very beautiful ponies grazing quietly. We plodded along and when we had got almost to the top of the field they decided to give chase! We pretended as though we really weren't bothered by them but inside we were a little bit scared! We then walked through an odd looking farmyard with lots of rotting old cars and vans and the way-markers seemed to have disappeared. Luckily a local lady walking her dog appeared and she pointed us in the right direction, but not after Jackie had walked about an extra quarter of a mile looking for signposts. Sorry Jackie. While we were talking to the lady, she asked if we'd been attacked by the black ponies. Maybe we had been lucky. Or maybe our attempt at appearing calm and assertive had worked!

Soon after we had started walking it began to rain and hail and this continued off and on all day. In between though it was beautifully sunny so we had quite the extremes of weather.

Mid-morning we came across a small shop, The Haytongate Hut.

 There was a summerhouse with tea/coffee etc making facilities and snacks...

... the most well-behaved black lab I've ever met ...

... and a shed containing Hadrian's Wall themed t-shirts, mugs, fridge magnets etc. "I came; I saw; I blistered!" I talked to the owner and he explained that he ran a screen printing business and decided to open a small outlet in his garden because it was right next to the wall path. What a great business idea. It certainly convinced us to part with some money!

We came across our first piece of wall at about 11:00, not a very big piece admittedly but a proper piece of wall no less.

A bit later the trail took us down to the River Irthing ...

... and the remains of Willowford Bridge.

A bit further along we crossed a bridge and ...

... the landscape changed from undulating hills and farmland ...

... rocky fields and moorland ...

... to dramatic escarpments.

But at least we had the proper Hadrian's Wall to follow for most of the day.

The majority of today was tough going, with a lot of pretty steep hills, some of which were quite hairy, especially on such a windy day.

But with hills comes stunning views and there were plenty of those! Because we had a shorter walk yesterday, we paid for it today because we had extra miles to make up. 

We had never seen such a variety of different sheep breeds...

... and there were so many gorgeous little lambs.

We saw ...

... a castle built from stones in the wall ...

... a quarry ...

... a house that looked derelict with very few tiles on the roof, that was actually being lived in ...

... and some stunning scenery.

We encountered ...

... loads of steps over walls ...

... a horse guarding a gate ...

... and a railway line to cross.

By 18:00 we had almost reached our B&B so rang them to say we'd soon be there. The owner offered to come and collect us from where we were (Caw Gap) and, because we were flagging, we eagerly agreed. Just 5 minutes later he appeared and whisked us off to Saughty Rigg.

It's quite a big place which used to be a working farm but now just offers B&B accommodation, mainly for walkers. I took this photo of it from the top of the hill.

After a shower and a spruce up we met in the restaurant for a fabulous dinner that we were all very ready for. It was delicious and we felt well looked after. This turned out to be our favourite B&B of the trip.

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

Pop back tomorrow for the blog describing Day 4!