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84 MILES WALK ALONG HADRIAN'S WALL IN JUST 4 DAYS!

I have walked from coast to coast along the Hadrian's Wall route!  It was an 84 mile journey which we aimed to complete in 4 days from 25th to 28th August 2009. We did it!

            Day 1   Wallsend to East Houses   (21.5 miles);

            Day 2   East Houses to Housesteads   (19 miles);

            Day 3   Housesteads to Walton  (18 miles);

            Day 4   Walton to Bowness on Solway  (25.5 miles).

A friend is currently being treated at the RVI in Newcastle and he wanted to do something to say thankyou to them for their help and treatment.  It was his intention to do the walk himself with his Son-in-Law and friend but complications with his treatment made this impossible.

That's where I come in!  I volunteered to walk with the other 2 and promptly volunteered my friend along with me!  Neither of us had any experience of long distance walking but both are commited to the cause and want to raise as much money as possible.

We trained hard, in all weathers (as some of the photographs show!) walking almost every day, varying the length and intensity of the walks, in preparation for the hills!  We did a practice run of day 2 (East Houses to Housesteads) and didn't realise how many stiles there were!  We felt it the next day in our legs!

The actual walk was great!  A good breakfast of porridge gave me a great start to the day! Each day our walk began early, starting at 0630hrs in Wallsend the first day but at least we made it to the Quayside, Newcastle in time for a civilised coffee stop at a decent time! 

The second day was much more difficult than the first as the rain was awful.  I didn't take my waterproofs off until an hour before the end of the walk.  Not a good hair day!

The third day began at Housesteads.  We had to get straight into the hill climbs..or should I say mountain climbs!  All this at 0700 hrs.  Despite being the shortest day in distance terms, it was the longest in time scale.  Probably due to all the hills, sorry, mountains!  A good deal of singing and pop quizzes (all whilst walking) kept us going.

An overnight stay at Walton helped us to have an 0815hrs start on the final day and we needed it!  It was a long way to the sea! We ventured through cow pats galore and came head to head with an angry farmer but nothing detered us. 

A lovely welcome party greeted us with champagne and kisses as we finished at 1830hrs at Bowness on Solway.

 

The funds raised will assist in purchasing toys, facilities and services to help make children's lives as comfortable as possible during their stay in hospital.

Please help by donating - I know that a lot of people ask for sponsorship - hopefully it's all in a good cause.  My plea certainly is!  I have even posted some of the photographs we took whilst doing the 4 days walk onto this page so you can really have a good laugh - surely that's worth a little bit of money from you to see me trying to get over all those stiles!

Thanks for thinking of me and a huge thanks to those kind people who have sponsored me already by signing my sponsor form and giving cash.  I'm still happy to take donations that way....just as long as the money keeps coming in!

 

Julie