Day 1 Derek Day
(Dog poo day)
The morning dawned bright and sunny. Andrew, our host served us breakfast an hour early at our request- 7:00 instead of 8:00. WE had a traditional English Breakfast: bacon, sausage, egg, baked beans, grilled tomato. Lots of meats that I reperatedly enjoyed throughout the morning. We walked from Wallsend metro station, found the beginning of the trail and set off. It only took about 15 minutes before we started disrobing: It was a hot and steamy day. As we wlked through some quiet areas on a Sunday morning, we saw a Vicar heading off towards his church, guys mowing their tiny lawns with almost silent lawn mowers and poo. Poo everywhere. The Brits apparently resist cleaning up after their dogs. WE saw poo in the middle of the side walk, for pity's sake. Poo in the grass, poo in the woods, bags of poo sitting by lamp posts. And signs about poo. Warning signs and fine sign and even a sign saying, “There is no poo Fairy Godmother.” We were pretty grossed out by it all, and at one point I had it on my left shoe, and my right sock and LEG! I must have sat in or near some on one of our breaks.
We had the opportunity to see Newcastle from along the River Tyne, and we picked up a guide early on. Derek took it upon himself to be our personal guides to “His city, and HIS river.” He was very friendly, and quite helpful. He also appeared to have been drinking, and it was hard for him to articulate his words, but he suffered a motorcycle accident 2 years ago while going 110 mph around a turn, undoubtedly drunk, and took out his whole left side. Anyway, he escorted us for several miles and commented on his family and work and life, and was rwall very sweet. It was a relief when we wore him out however, and he sat down while we carried on. At that point we wandered into a Sunday open market by the river, and had fun looking at all the delicious food and craft items for sale. We ended up buying an assortment of olives, some cashews, baklava, and turkish delight which we enjoyed throughout the day.
Most of day 1 was unfortunately on black top, which was pretty unforgiving. And hot. After our snack we wandered back into Old Newcastle and visited the castle keep. How awesome to be standing in a building that was built in the 600's. This part of Britain oozes with history and I am constantly day dreaming about the people who lived here centuries ago. There has been trade on the banks of the river Tyne since Medieval times. And we were there.
We walked a long way that day- 15 miles total, according to the guide, but I believe we walked more than that. We saw children playing in parks, the WALL, the River Tyne, little bitty football players, the opera house in Newcastle, many beautiful old and ancient stone structures, cows and horses and gorgeous views from Heddon-on-the-Wall, our day 1 destination. AS the day wore on, the poo truned from the doggie variety to the cow variety. We pretty much smelled poo all day, although I will say, I'd rather smell cow than dog. Our final push was from a valley up to a village on top of a hill...Heddon-on-the-Wall. At Heddon-on-the-wall, with feet throbbing and toes aching, we got our first glimps of the 3-metre wide wall, built by Roman Centurians for Hadrianus Agustus. The wall was built to keep the Scotts from invading the Roman Empire. I suspect that a small band of highly motivated and aggressive ancient Scotts didn't let some puny little wall get in the way of their pillaging and plundering. The wall is amazing in other ways though. It spans Great Britain at it's throat- runs east -west and is about 84 miles long. It only took 10 years to build. Much of it today is buried under roads, or under farm land, and as we walked along there were places where we could spy some ancient remnants of the wall. There are places where it is fully exposed, and we took pictures of those places. We passed by miles and miles of old stone walls that were not Hadrian's, but contained stones from his wall. As a matter of fact, most of the old farm houses built 2 or 3 hundred years ago and earlier use stones that were taken off the wall. If you look closely you can see the ancient tool marks made by the Roman builders in stones from walls and houses, all along the way.
Christian Howes masterminded this trip, but injured his knee several weeks ago, so is not along on with us. We miss him, and are sure it would have been much more highly entertaining with him along, so we brought along his likeness. We are taking pictures of him as we travel along our way. My favorite picture at this point is titled, “Head on wall at Heddon-on-the-wall.” See above picture.
We arrived at North Houghton Farm around 4:00. p.m. We were greeted by our host Paula yelling at her little scruffy dog who was barking at us with, “Shut up you stupid wench! You little tart!” Paula was incredibly friendly and funny. Our place was much like a hostel, with rooms with bunk beds and rather spartan accommodations. It was clean and quiet and we slept well. After we settled in, Paula ran us into town in her farm truck so that we could get some dinner. We ate at a place with really friendly wait staff and incredible views of the surrounding hills and valleys. Great ale was enjoyed by all.
The great thing about walking 15 miles is that when your head hits the pillow- you are OUT.
Today's pedometer reading: 45,037 steps
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