Roamin’ Adventures at Hadrian’s Wall
- Tent City!
On 13th-15th July 2007 twenty one happy hikes took to the hills of Cumbria in our Hadrian’s Wall Hike, raising over £11,000 for the hospice. Among them was David Prentice, here is his story:
- The Traditional ‘Before’ Picture
Having had seen the flyer for Compton Hospice’s Hadrian’s Wall hike just after Christmas, there was no chance of me not taking part having developed an interest in Roman history after numerous visits to Rome itself.. I applied and was a little shocked to receive the information pack complete with a 10 week training regime (2 ten mile hikes over the preceding weekends I deemed would suffice instead though).
- More wall, even more hills!
So it was that we met up at Compton Hospice to board the coach which would take us up to Carlisle. A mere seven hours of rain drenched motorway driving saw us arrive at the Hadrian’s Wall campsite which was to be our base for the next couple of days. Before settling in for the night we took a short ride to the Twice Brewed Inn which allowed us an evening meal, a very welcome pint, and the chance to start to forge the friendships that would get us through the 25 miles of walking ahead of us.
- In places we could walk the wall
A little disconcertingly, we rose around 6am to the relaxing sounds of the dawn chorus and started to psyche ourselves up for the 15 miles that followed the short bus ride to Lanercost Priory, the start of the trek. After a lovely breakfast cooked by Ash, Extreme Hospitality’s most excellent chef we boarded the coach. I was all too aware of the hills that the bus climbed – if they had that effect on the coach, what would they do to me?
- More hills
After posing for the traditional “before” photo in the rain outside Lanercost Priory, the rain fortunately died off and it took us an hour before we caught our first glimpse of the wall itself. I was quite taken aback by how tall it was (in its heyday it reached 5-6m high). We followed the trail where the wall would have been, at places coming across remaining sections, but by the time we reached Birdoswald Fort (the first Roman fort that we would pass), the wall was constantly with us and could be seen to rise and fall with the natural contours of the ridges ahead.
- Time for a team pic
A final ascent from Thirlwell castle saw us arrive at Walltown quarry, our designated lunch stop where Ash met us with the godsend of the tea urn and a large box full of chocolate brownies (which were eaten a little too freely). After lunch was the climb up Walltown Crags, where some stunning views of Scotland counter balanced the effects of our over indulging on the chocolate brownies. With a feeling of surprise at the lack of pain that I was feeling, although the slow pace throughout the day probably helped this, we headed down off the Crags arriving at the campsite to be met by the lovely smells of hot food coming from the marquee, never had a roast dinner been so gladly welcomed.
After an evening of conversation and laughter I again found myself waking at 6am, although this time there was brilliant sunshine. After another lovely breakfast, and a “Carry on Camping” style series of stretches, we headed out for the final ten miles, cruelly aware of what lay before us having admired the splendour and ruggedness of Windshields Crag the previous evening. It was with trepidation that we learnt that the highest point of the walk awaited us. Again, the views were very distracting as we approached Homesteads Fort, the site for us to prove that with experience does come wisdom, and refrain from over-indulging in Ash’s Custard filled muffins! After that torment, it was a final climb alongside the wall up Hotbanks Crag before heading back to the road to a Mithraic temple, where as a group we turned the final corner to be greeted by not only the welcome sight of the coach, but also of Rob, Mark and Catherine, our intrepid guides from Discover Adventure, armed with bottles of champagne to toast our achievement.
Now, in the great scheme of things, 25 miles isn’t a lot, especially when considering that the Roman Army did that in a day, complete with a heavy pack and was still able to build a camp afterwards. As a starting point for us though, we couldn’t have chosen better. The group camaraderie was brilliant, we all got on so well and have decided to take part in next years Offa’s Dyke Challenge.
