This promised to be a long, hard day- and with the recognised ‘best bits’ now behind me (and some quite grim bits of suburban Newcastle in front) it looked like being something of a trudge. In the end, it was a pleasant day’s walking, though at 32 miles it was on balance a little longer than I’d have liked…
Perhaps not surprisingly, I opted for an early start and was on the road by 6.25. First, a last look back in the direction of Chollerford:
Most of the first half of the walk was spent tracing the line of the road built in the eighteenth century on top of (and from) the Wall itself. It’s a fast road too, and though most of this section is spent in fields accompanying the road, the repetitive buzz of fast moving traffic took its toll:
Back to fairly level ground again:
One of the trials of this section is that the route is so straight that you can see for miles ahead which way you’re going. This can be a bit disspiriting when the scenary is fairly mundane. And yet for all that, there were a lot of lovely views:
And some nice views approaching Newcastle:
By now I was getting tired, and the slog into Newcastle centre was quite hard- though it was helped by the river and some classic views:
The last two hours were tough, but I made it to Wallsend (Segedunum) at 5.55:
Sadly, no ‘x marks the spot’ finishing line, so I had to make do with a couple of improvised selfies:
Overall, it’s a good walk with a world class central section. There’s plenty to keep you going but I was blessed with good weather: the sections through industrial Newcastle would have been particularly grim in the rain. I’m glad I did it in four days: it was good to be able to get through the less attractive parts that bit quicker.
And so: the end. As I said, a good walk and I’d recommend it. But maybe not in the same league as the Coast to Coast…
Chris Stuart's Walks 