Hadrian's Wall

The reason I haven't posted for a week or so is because I've been on a mini holiday... if you can call walking 70 miles a holiday! For ages me and my Dad have joked about walking Hadrian's Wall but this year we finally got down to it. Let me tell you now it was phyically the toughest thing I have ever undertaken but I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to push myself so far. For those of you who don't know Hadrian's Wall is an English Heritage Site as it was built by the Roman's in 122 AD in order to keep the Scottish 'Barbarians' out of the Empire, the wall representing the northern frontier. It is 84 miles ong and extends from Bowness on Solway in northern Cumbria to Wallsend in Newcastle. Although there isn't much wall left in most places, there is 10 miles of continous wall which runs through the stunning rural Northumberland National Park. Although I was born in Northumberland I don't really remember it and was shocked at how remote it actually is as we struggled even to find a village with a local shop. On the first day we walked 30 miles and this was the fatal mistake which led to us having to abandon the walk on the last day. Not being used to walking so far our feet blistered and we could hardly walk the next morning! Despite this we walked 20 miles the following two days. I faced a nightmare decision after 28 miles: face a field of frisky and drooling bulls or add another 3 miles on to the walk taking a detour when it was agony to walk another step. Suffering from dehydration and lack of food and oxygen we arrived the local pub after 12 hours of walking and downed 2 pints of orange squash each. It was so bad that my vision was impared and I collapsed at the bar feeling dizzy from exertion. The great thing was that we met so many friendly people from all over the world from Hawaii to Germany and are planning on returning next yeat to conquer the wall!