HW2
Hadrians Wall - Day 2
MONDAY 18TH JULY 2016:
Up and about and ready to go, but first breakfast. A quick fry up and chat to other guests. Initially just one who I will call “Washington DC” (because that was where she was from). She had just flown in the day before and was doing 4 days walking – a dream held from age 12! Hope it was worth it. Another Yank popped her head around the door to collect lunch for her walk, then a couple from Belgium who were completing the walk today…blimey, this is truly an international experience.
I leave the guesthouse behind – and my bag to be collected – and set off on the next leg of the journey, a planned 14 miles or so from Carlisle to Lanercost. The sun is out and it is warming up. A quick walk through the city streets, past the imposing Carlisle Castle, then popping into the Sands Leisure Centre for my next passport stamp. I walk alongside the river Eden, then cross over the Memorial Bridge and soon into the countryside. The day’s walk is through true rural country - fields, pastures, woodland trails and the like, plus the occasional bit of road or village. It is farm country and sometimes you are going through actual farmyards, the cows taking shade in the sheds. Talking of cows, they are everywhere! On many occasions you go over a stile or through a gate and are faced with a field of cows…or is that a bull? The cows stare…I mean they really stare at you. As you approach they look up from grazing, look directly at you and stare. They follow you with their gaze, sometimes taking a step towards you…ok, then most go back to chewing the cud. But they can be quite intimidating. After a while you realise they are just looking, but I still tend to keep my distance. I seem to recall reading that cows have no peripheral vision, so they can only see directly ahead, that would explain the stare. As a bit of variety from cows there are some sheep, but strangely enough no people. I barely see anyone else all day, even one small village which seems deserted, am I the last person left on the planet? One reason for the peace and quiet may be the heat, or rather the humidity. It is quite oppressive today, maybe everyone is having a siesta to keep cool.
The route is well sign posted, the acorn symbol constantly marking the way. Arrows show directions, although initially I don’t pick up on that and wander around a few fields working out which way to go. Just me and the cows. I can see some major hills in the distance, I am guessing the Pennines.
At one point I come across the “stall-on-the-wall”, one of the few honesty boxes I come across on the HWP where you can top up with goodies. These are a great idea, either like this, literally a box in the middle of nowhere, or like one later in the day a garden shed in the drive of someone’s house. At the shed, about 10 miles in to my walk, there is a group of hikers having refreshments and I have a chat with one of the guys. They are walking East to West, starting from Bank that day and going to Carlisle. It is about 1:00pm so we just go on about how hot/humid it is! Needless to say I buy more water to top up
Mid afternoon I arrive in Lanercost and make my way to the Lanercost Priory, then through to the Lanercost Tearooms and shop and the neighbour guesthouse, Abbey Farm. This B&B is a cut above the normal guesthouse in all respects, quite rightly an award winner. Great setting, higher quality room, good food. Other than a bit of a mooch around I chill out for the rest of the day, catch up with peeps at home. Another 16 miles on the Endomondo clock.
REFLECTIONS ON THE DAY: The walk terrain was arguably quite normal, generally flat, farm country, however, the atmosphere made it feel special. Whether it was the novelty, the isolation, the humid weather, simply the sense of being on a journey, I do not know, but I really enjoyed this.
Only one thing missing…...that elusive wall!
