What A Difference A Day Makes!

Day 3 – Thursday 11th July 2024 – Chollerford to Twice Brewed, 13.24 miles

For the first time in months I had >8 hours sleep (the sleep of the just, or just knackered the day before?) and didn’t wake until after 8 o’clock – a bit later than planned – as getting going in the mornings always seem to take an age.

Breakfast, like everything in The George, was okayish and I “stoked up” on plenty as it was buffet style. I finally got underway after 10 o’clock with my boots almost dry from a night beside the fire and, amazingly, it wasn’t raining.

The first part of the walk followed a road and I thought, “Oh, here we go again, more road/beside road walking” but it got better and better with loads of antiquities to see, lots of the wall and increasingly rugged landscape.  This is what I’d come to Hadrian’s Wall for!

At Chesters – Roman fort and museum – I stamped my passport again and followed the road (still The Military Road) for a while although on paths running in fields away from the traffic thankfully.  I came upon more and more fragments of the wall and stopped at a number of Milecastles which the Romans built every 1 of their miles (1.48 “modern” miles) and turrets between them.  I found it all very fascinating, especially the Temple of Mithras slightly away from the road.

As I’ve previously mentioned, The Hadrian’s Wall Path is the busiest of the National Trails and, with the weather being nicer and more of the wall to see, I passed quite a few people going in both directions.  Some were “proper” walkers (i.e. doing the full trail) whilst others were just out for the day.  I caught up with the two American women, one of whom was suffering badly with blisters (she dropped out at Twice Brewed), the Belgians from Oudenaarde – who’d stayed the night at Hexham and had had to get a bus there and back to Chollerford, a very nice Australian woman called Leanne from somewhere near Melbourne who’d been on the Isle of Arran the week before and was next heading for the Lake District, a family of a couple plus teenage daughter and a party of mostly Asian walkers who were spending a few days on the wall. “Blimey”, I said to a guy walking on his own, “It looks like another mass trespass!”. “Well, it’s about time for another one”, he replied and I commented on our new government  reneging on it’s pledge some months ago to extend the right to roam in England to match that of Scotland.

At one stage I was actually walking on the wall itself which seemed sacrilegious – but that was the way the trail went! At Houseteads I had a brief look around Vercovicium, another fort.  Here, I forgot to get my passport stamped but, the following day, Noelene kindly took it back for me and did the honours. At Crag Lough the trail climbed to Highshields Crag with great views all around and I stopped a while to eat my Marmite butty, chocolate “cakey” thing and apple I’d nicked from The Boathouse at Wylam the day before last.

By now the path was “undulating” and very rocky so that, combined with the mass of things to see, made for rather slower progress.  But it didn’t matter – it was a lovely day.  Then I came upon the stump of the Sycamore of Sycamore Gap fame and felt a mixture of great sadness and anger at the b******s who chopped the beautiful and iconic tree down, allegedly after a disagreement with the National Trust. It may well grow again but I’ll never get to see it in all it’s glory.  Never mind, I drank the beer brewed in its honour later!

Shortly after I walked about half a mile down from the path to the wonderful Twice Brewed brewery and pub – our “digs” for the night and reward for a good walk! Twice Brewed is a wonderful institution and well loved by walkers.  So much so that they have a large drying room which I took advantage of to get my boots, still damp from the previous day, properly dry.

Noelene wasn’t happy with the room we’d been given so the very pleasant guy who seemed to be in charge swapped it for one of their rather nice chalets, which was excellent.  And if only I’d remembered to bring my lead I could’ve filled the car with electricity as they had a couple of EV charging points.

Dinner was Cumberland sausage and mash – very nice and very filling and I had two and a half pints of their own Luna Pale Ale (not Sycamore Gap!) which was a bit too much to be honest – but…. 😂.  We sat in the bar reading for a while and then turned in – early nights are very much part of the routine on long distance walks!

Impressions of Day 3

The walk from Chollerford to Steel Rigg/Twice Brewed was far and away the best so far – and not just cos it didn’t rain!  The scenery became more rugged and interesting and there was a plethora of Roman stuff to see.  The distance was the shortest of the 5 walks that I did but with the “undulation situation” it was harder going then either of the two previous days’ longer walks.  A very good day!

Some Day 3 Photos