A Journey of 84 Miles Starts With….

Day 1 – Tuesday 9th July 2024 – Wallsend to Wylam, 15.76 miles

One look out of the window at The Grand Hotel Tynemouth at 7 o’clock in the morning was enough to settle any doubt – it was to be a drive to Wallsend, 6 miles to the west, and start the walk there.  So, having had a massive full Tyneside breakfast (part of which I saved for my “packed lunch”!) we drove to The Segedunum Fort and Museum, the start proper of the Hadrian’s Wall Path.  After the obligatory starting line photo and purchase and stamping of my official Hadrian’s Wall Passport, I set off in light rain which got heavier as the day went on, or at least seemed to.

Near the start I met a very pleasant German family – a couple and young daughter who were also setting off but as I was delayed in the shop I didn’t see them again until later on.

I finally got going at about 10:30 for the nearly 16 miles to Wylam, staying there (about 1.5 miles off the route) because there was nothing “suitable” (!) at Heddon-on-the-Wall. The day’s walk consisted almost entirely of walking on tarmac paths but because the weather was so bad it wasn’t such a bad thing, to be honest.

The route followed the Tyne for several miles before entering the City of Newcastle with good views of The Baltic and Sage centres (the latter now rather pompously called The Glasshouse International Centre for Music) in Gateshead across the river, the Millennium Bridge (the one, which unlike that in London, worked first time) and a great view of the many bridges across the Tyne- especially the High Level Bridge that, many years ago, I’d crossed doing The Great North Run several times.

I eventually caught up with the German family and had a brief chat with them.  They were from Saxony. I mentioned the English weather as it was, by then, pelting down and wondered why they weren’t walking in the beautiful Black Forest in which I’d had a brief stroll earlier in the year.  The guy replied that they’d been there in the spring. “Oh, wow”, I said, “That must’ve been wonderful.” He relied, “Yes, but it was raining all the time there too”!

I continued along The Tyne passing finishers going in the opposite direction – they and I wishing each other well.  The urban sprawl gradually gave way to countryside, some of which still bore the ravishes of industry from the 19th and 20th centuries. I reached the Tyneside Country Park – a linear green space alongside the river and stopped on a bench in the pouring rain to eat my “filched” lunch and enjoy a coffee.

From there it was a few miles along more tarmac paths, leaving the Hadrian’s Wall Path just before Robert Stephenson’s birthplace, at which I stopped for a few minutes, and into the village of Wylam and The Boathouse, a pub beside both the Tyne and the main (and busy) railway line between Newcastle and Carlisle, arriving at about 3 o’clock.

Had a rest for a bit, until Noelene arrived at 4 with our luggage, then showered, changed, got things ready for tomorrow’s walk and had a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker in the bar before heading to the nearby Ship Inn for dinner (Whitebait followed by an excellent steak and ale pie and a pint of Campden Pale Ale, which was okay).

Then back to “the digs” and an earlyish night.

Impressions of Day 1

Well, I liked the part through the city, especially seeing The Baltic, Sage, bridges, etc. but the walk was a right old tarmac slog, not helped so much by the almost continuous rain.  And, of course, not a hide nor hair of The Wall!

Some Day 1 Photos