Monday 14 October 2013

Day 9 of Murray & David's Northern Frontier conquest: The Journey Home

Day 9: Bowness on Solway - Bere Alston

Weather: Sunny
Distance Traveled:  413 miles
New beers tasted: 0
Caffeine Consumed: Way too much!

Caveat & disclaimer: No laws [traffic or otherwise] were broken in the writing of this blog. I have exaggerated events for [hopefully] comic effect.

Tide Out
Tide In
Tuesday 10th September. Time to go home. Orla had kindly agreed to drive up [with Georgie] and collect us, but she wasn't arriving until about 11am, so David and I had time to explore the coastline of the Solway Firth. Apart from being spectacularly beautiful, it is
View towards Scotland
From abandoned docks at Port Carlisle
View Towards Port Carlisle
From abandoned docks at Port Carlisle
renowned for its plethora of bird  life. Neither of us are 'twitchers'  and couldn't tell a Coot from a Tern, but I can report there were lots & lots of pretty looking birds. Yesterday evening the tide was very much in. This morning it was right the way out, so we took the opportunity to stroll across the mud flats to the abandoned docks. this was the West coast [well, sort of] and we had walked from Tynemouth in the East, to Solway Firth in the West. It felt good. It was also very quiet and very beautiful. Worried / paranoid that we may be caught out by the notoriously quick in-coming tides, we darted back across the mud flats to the camp site and struck camp for the very last time on this expedition. As we did so, one man and his dog walked in to the camp site and started to talk to us about our journey. Very nice man he was too. Turned out he was Henry Stedman, author of Hadrians Wall Path. We had many tales to tell and were very enthusiastic. Top of our priority was the closure of the Centurian pub in Walton. Nearly ruined our trip! Promised us we would be mentioned in the next addition of his book [out February 2014]. Fame at last!  

Packed up and ready to go, my dear wife Orla and devoted Greyhound Georgie turned up. Time to go home. Yay! After a whistle stop tour and revisit of Bowness, we headed south. We stopped off for a quick, yet delightful lunch at the Drovers Arms, Monkhill. Food was delicious, good choice of beer- but  I was driving, so had coffee. So the coffee fiend was born. As we wound our way through the sleepy Cumbrian coastal areas back to Carlisle, we recounted our stories of the past week. Oh, what fun we had had. As we hit the M6  at Carlisle, it was Motorway all the way South back to Devon. Orla had driven up to collect us- I was driving back. I was tired after 7 days walking. So I needed coffee. Motorway services, after motorway services were stopped at so I could refuel. Caffeine was consumed in huge quantities. Americano's with extra shots. I was buzzing. More Caffeine. GIVE.ME.MORE.CAFFEINE. I was gibbering. I stopped making sense. My driving became erratic and way too fast . Other drivers were not being considerate. Scenery blurred due to warp speed. My hair was blowing in the wind and the window wasn't even open! [or that's how it seemed; see caveat & disclaimer above]. 

Within minutes we were back in Devon. Time stood still. Relax. Breath. Reality. The warp speed journey of the M6 / M5 was over. Heart rate returned to normal. I was banned from any more caffeine.  Maybe none of the above really happened. It was light when we started our journey. The sun was behind us. Now it was dark. Perhaps it had taken longer than minutes. Maybe I shouldn't drink so much coffee. It makes me nervous. And loose track of time. Maybe my memory of the drive home was compromised. Maybe I made it all up. But we all got home safely [Legally. Honestly].

David & Murray's Northern Frontier Conquest was now officially over. We were home.

THE END!










Sunday 13 October 2013

Day 8 of Murray & David's Northern Frontier Conquest

Day 8: Carlisle- Bowness on Solway

Weather: Dry [apart from a 10 minute monsoon soaking]
Distance Walked: 13miles
New Beers Tasted: 2

The End is Nigh!
The morning of our last full day walking dawned. After an early night and a good nights sleep in a warm and comfy room [as opposed to a multiple occupancy camping barn], I jumped out of bed with a spring in my step. This was most definitely a 3 porridge sachet and a 2 cafetiere day [single sachet servings of flavoured porridge -with extra honey- had been breakfast every morning, accompanied with fresh coffee!]. Met a young woman in the hostel cycling Lands End - John O'groats. Her Aunt was car support. Hope she completed her challenge safely. We made short work of the walk out of Carlisle. Nice a city as it was, it was still a city, and walking through a city with a back pack is odd and well, just not very pleasant.

With actual remnants of the wall 'in situe' long behind us, our first interesting historical 'artifact' was the church of St. Micheal's, in Burgh-by-Sands. Interesting on several levels; it stands on the site of [and is partially built of stone from] the Roman Fort of Aballava; it is also partially fortified itself.  After Edward I , "Hammer of the Scots", had bankrupted Lanercost Priory , he continued his war on the Scot's, but not for long. He died not far from either Lanercost or Scotland, in Burgh Marshes,  
of dysentery on 7th July 1307.
Edward I
Died near Here
St Michael's Church
When he died the Anglo-Scottish border area descended into chaos, lawlessness and violence. For several decades the violent clan rivalries of the  Border Reivers made life very difficult for those living in the area and houses, even churches, were fortified to provide protection for the local population from these raids. St Michael's church is one such example. By now we were very much looking forward to a pint, especially as the the local pub is The Greyhound Inn . Unfortunately it was not open when we passed. It looks like a very nice pub, but keeps 'odd' country opening hours. We had our sandwiches at the foot of the memorial statue to Edward I instead.


Fortified ourselves by the rest, we pushed on. The sun was out, the land flat and the scenery pleasant. We were not far now from our coast-coast destination. The flood prone road from Longburgh to Drumburgh was straight, exposed and prone to flooding from the Solway Firth. As we walked across, spirits were high, but we could see the weather in Scotland across the river. It was dramatic. And wet. Thankfully the tide was not yet in, as we could have got really wet! As we marched across Burgh Marsh, we kept a close eye on the weather- all of a sudden it came. Very quickly.

"When water reaches this point
maximum depth is 3 feet"
The Rain Commeth
The pressure dropped. The wind changed direction. It got colder. Then it rained. Hard. 

The scenery was quite dramatic and there were 'photo opportunities, so it wasn't all bad. We also found out what cows really do when it rains. They don't lie down at all. They shelter under trees. Or at least try to! In Drumburgh we passed 'Drumburgh Castle', another example of fortified residence from the Border Reivers era of 14th Century. 

Drumburgh Castle
Cows Sheltering from the Rain
The white door in the centre is the original main front door. The sweeping steps up to it are a modern addition. In the 14th & 15th Century, an extendable wooden ladder was used for entry / exit to the house. Drawn up at night for protection from murderous border raids. It was by now mid afternoon and we were thirsty.


The Greyhound had been shut and we were holding out that the Highland Laddie in Glasson would be open. It was. Dripping wet and thirsty we entered the Highland Laddie Inn . This was purely for research purposes, as like many buildings in this area, it is partly built of stone from the Wall. The pub was warm, friendly and served an exceptional pint of Cocker Hoop . Very well kept beer which slipped down a treat.

Highland Laddie Inn
David and I were now only a matter of miles from the end of our walk. The rain had stopped. The sun had come back out. We were good to go! We reached Port Carlisle and pitched our tents at the Chapel Side Camp site. Realisation came that this was the last time we would have to carry our ruck sacks. Bliss.

Chapel Side Camping
Port Carlisle
We would have sampled the Ale's at the Hope and Anchor Inn in Port Carlisle, but is was under new ownership and being gutted and re-furbished, so we had the arduous task of the last 1 mile walk to Bowness without the fortification of Cumbrian Ale. Countries have been invaded for less! In fact at Vindolanda [which we visited a few days ago], one of the tablets that have recently been uncovered was inscribed by a patrol commander, pleading for more ale for the troops, presumably before there was a mutiny! Ale does , after all, help one deal with the weather up here in northern climes. This was after the all, the Edge of Roman Civilisation.
Solway Firth
Looking North towards Scotland

It wasn't all about beer. We did take time to admire the natural beauty of the area and big, dramatic skylines. Before heading to the next pub!

The end was in sight. One mile to go. Tents up. Face washed [you can't arrive smelly & with a dirty face!], clean[est] cloths on, off we trekked. We arrived at Bowness-on-Solway and before visiting the last pub, the actual end of the Hadrian's Wall Walk needed to be visited, The Banks.The Bank is an Edwardian 'promenade', recently renovated, on the banks of the Solway Firth. Our 7th, and final stamp on our Hadrian's Wall Path Passport, was collected here. We had officially finished. Elated, it was time for a final drink. The Banks may be the 'official' end. The  Kings Arms is, however, the 'spiritual' end of the walk.

Is there no end to the
good beer Jennings brew?
Just a quick one!
Well I have just walked 84 miles
The value of the food here is outstanding [not bad veggie options], as is the welcome from both landlord and locals. Beer isn't bad either (!), so we stayed for the entire evening. It would have been rude not too. We had to move tables for the Monday domino league, but we didn't mind. The diary / log book of walkers who have finished the trail is kept here and my entry is scrawled herein, dated 9th September 2013. Well worth a read in its own right [the book that is, not necessarily my entry]. Comments and bragging from all over the world. As for us, well, we broke no records [that goes to a local lad who ran it in just over 16hrs] and we didn't "do the wall" in 3 days, knee deep in snow. But we did have fun. We came, we walked, we conquered. And we drank beer!  It took us 7.5 days and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Highlights? As far as the actual Wall is concerned, the complete sections of the wall, on the Crags, the middle section [day 3,4,5]; museum & fort at Vindolanda; Halstead fort, were the most dramatic memories. But as for the whole experience? We went for the walk. We did the walk. Coast to coast , along the whole length of Hadrian's Wall. It wasn't just the Wall that made the memories- it was the people we met along the way, the fellow walkers, locals, the places we stayed, the pubs we visited, the general scenery, not to forget the all round great company, whit and intelligence of my friend David. And of course the beer we sampled was, in most cases, rather good.


WE DID IT!
[photo bombed by Georgie]


Or, if going West-East
The Beginning.