This was a long, long, long walk with a lot of up bits and down bits, by the end we all had aching knees, hips and calf muscles.
To start todays walk, Livi and I were dropped off in Great Whittington which was the point on the St Oswald's Way where we had finished last time.
We had just a couple of miles of field walking before...
...reaching the point where the St Oswald's Way joins the Hadrian's Wall Path. At this point it is right along side the road called The Military Way, which is a B road but one which cars and lorries thunder along at great speed. The fact that it is a Roman road makes it very straight!!
Unfortunately quite a lot of this section of the Wall path follows the route of the Military Road. Luckily the footpath is separated from the road for most of the time.
This section is mostly farmland with little actual evidence of Wall.
But as you walk along you start to spot earthworks and ditches and see that although the wall may be gone the evidence still remains of its existence.
It was at this point that we caught up with a group of University students who were walking the whole path (84 miles) in four days. One of the group had a striking resemblence to Andy Murray so we nicknamed them the Andy Murray Crew! At this point there were about 15 of them but when we saw them the next day the group had halved in number - I think 21 miles a day might have been a bit much!
At this time of year the fields are full of sheep and their lambs. We spotted a number of very cute ones, many of which were so unafraid they came right up to us and sniffed our trousers and hands.
This was a Herdwick ewe whose lamb had a black coat with white ears.
A couple of fields further on we came across these sheep whose farmer must have great skill in writing with a spray can as all their numbers were really clearly written.
Number 65 was one of the cutest!
Heavenfield marks the end of the St Oswald's Way, so just that other bit to fill in then...
At last after almost 5 miles walking on the Hadrian's Wall Path we came across this short section of actual wall. It was quite exciting at the time but after walking the rest of the way to Once Brewed we definitely saw plenty more.
The rest of our party caught the Hadrian's Wall Bus - the aptly numbered AD122 - and joined us at Chollerford. After some lunch we continued all together with Margaret here being the one leading the way.
At Brocolitia the three youngest decided that they had done enough for the day and stopped to catch the AD122 back to the Youth Hostel.
I was joined by Diana, a school friend, who accomanied us through to Once Brewed.
After Brocolitia the Wall path starts to become very up and downy as can be seen in the next picture which looks back towards Housteads. The crags, however, are quite breathtaking and the views were amazing. It was very rewarding to look back and see the bits we had done. After a while though and being late in the day we decided to take the parallel but slightly lower path which was a little easier on the legs!
Sycamores gap - made famous by Kevin Costner in Robin Hood.
At last after 10 hours of walking we arrived at Once Brewed Youth Hostel where Tim welcomed us in with a cup of tea and dinner of Pasta to replenish all those lost calories!! At least tomorrows walk is only about 7 miles.
