Pennine Way 28th April - 17th May 2014: Day 14 : Greenhead

Total distance covered so far : 343 km

After the all out slog to cover the distance yesterday I felt beaten up still this morning so took comfort in the fact this was to be a short day. It also feels rather as though I've rejoined the rest of the world again too because Harian's Wall is very close to Greenhead and it seems that the Hadrian's Wall Way is a very popular walk, with the non-British. So both the hotel this morning and the BnB this evening are full of visitors to the UK doing that. A couple from Alaska, another couple from Oz, another from Virginia! But sadly I'm the only one doing the Pennine Way!

I was describing how bad yesterday had been for me to the Alaskan couple at breakfast this morning and the lady was sympathising and saying how they had found the Hadrian's Wall walk to be very similar and difficult. She told me that having already done the walk I was to do today, though in reverse, she was sorry but she could not offer me good news about what I was going to find there. So I sank my face back into my cup of coffee and started drowning my ideas of a carefree day. I so wished I didn't have to go through all that again.

My day got underway and for some reason I had also expected that Hadrian might have built his wall across fields or across the open undulating moorland! He didn't! At least not this bit he didn't! He found the place with the highest, most roller-coaster cliffs for miles around and stuck his wall right across the top. Which means that today, those of us that choose to walk the route of the wall have anything but an easy time.

The sweat dripped off my nose and chin as I clambered up section after section (yes, it was raining again, so I was slowly poaching in my waterproofs) and I kept expecting to soon come upon the areas of boggy mess and impassable reed-beds that she had described. And then, quite suddenly..... I was on a regular road and heading for my BnB! What the hell had she been talking about? Her idea of boggy hell was clearly just a muddy puddle! Those two had better never attempt the Pennine Way. They won't make it!

Contain your excitement.... ItsThe Wall....

It went up and down a lot more than this!

The maps are a bit misleading you know! They suggest the presence of a Milecastle!...

But when you get there is looks like this.... Thrilling!

An old quary where they mined a lot of Whinstone, the super hard rock that the Wall is made from. They stole the Wall too and used it for roads or something! Oh how times have changed!