Saturday 3rd May

As 1980's rockersEurope would have said “it’s the final countdown . .” on Tuesday we have lift off as we start our 85mile monumental and heroic expedition for the Air Ambulance.

All that remains is for us to thank everyone who have sponsored us and all those who have offered support and encouragement over the last few months, in particular Faye Niblett, Lincolnshire Co-op, a fine centurion indeed!

“Our business now is north”

Regards

Chris & Peter

Monday 5th May

We arrived safely in Bowness on Solway mid afternoon in bright sunshine. Our first view of the formidable opponent that isHadrian's Wall is that it is do-able!

Naturally, the unexpected high temperatures forced us to partake in some liquid refreshments while catching the Newcastle Chelsea match in the local hostelry!

We have already noticed copious amounts of swarming midges and a length of terrain threatened by high tides. Alarmingly, neither of us had the foresight to pack speedos or insect repellent, so as Sir Alex would say, "it's squeeky bum time!"

However, we shall overcome!
Half a mile over the water we can see , the land of haggis, Mr Mackay, porridge, Raith Rovers and Irn Brew, which is apparently made from girders!

We're just psyching ourselves up for the 'off' tomorrow, please stay tuned for another sample of the cultural delights that can be found just a couple of hundred miles outside of Lincolnshire!

Time for some strategic thinking over a pint of local brew in one of those inns where the music stops, the locals stare, and the landlord asks, "Just passing through are we lads?"

Tuesday 6th May

Here we are at the end of day one in the fabulous cultural epicentre that isCarlisle. Oh the architecture, the poetry, the opera house, the skycrapers of the financial district . . . . Not really, the McVities factory looks good . . Er the out of town supermarkets look familiar and unfortunatly Carlisle United's tour of the ground and trophy room has shut for the day. Anyway enough rambling nonsense, a few facts for you all on Carlisle:CarlisleCastle is 900yrs old and only the damp course to complete now, the local Wickes DIY has a mid-season sale on damp course installation which is handy. Carlisle Priory was founded in 1122 by King Charles 1st, in 1132 it became 's only Cathedral, not a patch on Lincoln's.BruntonPark, home of Carlisle United Football Club, was built in 1909 and the first match was against Newcastle United Football Club, who won 2-0. They now have the pleasure of welcoming Leeds United Football Club to the town for the playoffs, thankfully we will have moved on by then.

So today after a hearty & substantial breakfast, for which we awarded Wallsend House, Bowness 7/10, we completed the 1st stage, 16miles from Bowness toCarlisle. Hot and hilly was the general view, good scenery with the pennines looming on the horizon which look a bit daunting, but onwards and upwards. We took a stop in a charming village pub and in true CAMRA style sampled the local ale, good stuff and micro breweries are the future!

Today started 9.29am arrived 5.16pm, total 7hrs 47mins.

Tomorrow we face a climb up to the plateau and the tough terrain of the crags,18miles across the pennines should be a tester. Stay tuned for more details and further "witty" anecdotes from up north.

Wednesday 7th May

Today we leftCarlisle after visiting the very interesting Citadel Railway station. Well, if you are a trainspotter you may have been slightly aroused, but we could've done without the extra couple of miles on the journey!

We hit some big hills today and with water supplies dwindling in the searing heat, it was certainly tougher than day 1. I think it's gonna hurt in the morning!

We finally saw some very impressive sections of the wall including forts and milecastles. Those Romans sure knew how to defend a territory!

We turned up late for tea at a remote farmhouse in Gilsland, but persuaded the host to do us a nice gammon steak washed down with a particularly nice local Tarnmonath brew!

Gilsland straddles the border between and Northumberland and boasts the spectacular Birdoswald Fort at the top of a deep gorge carved out by the river Irthing. Nearby isBewcastleCastle, built by William 2nd on the site of a Roman fort with what was a ready supply of stone.

This lesson in English history was provided free of charge and is probably true.

We've now covered 37 miles, and today's timings were: departed 9.59am, arrived 7.19pm, a total of 9hours and 20minutes.

Tomorrow will be tough, but asBillyOcean once sang, "When the going gets tough, the tough check out the bus timetables!"

Thursday 8th May

What a day today. We knew the terrain would be tough but did not expect this. Today was meant to be 15miles, however our Garmin sattelite watch shows 18+ miles, nearly all upwards! Can't recall ever walking 18miles all up hill, which was quite novel.The terrain was incredible, the views were something else & the low level flights by the RAF were enough to scatter cattle,worry sheep . . . & cause us to point skywards and go "cor!"! The day started with a delightful cuppa & slice of cake at a 13th century castle (see picture). As the temperature was rising so were we, the path & the wall just kept going up. Why did the Romans build the wall so high in the mountains? Far be it for us to question Roman planning & engineering, but would the Scots attack over a sheer cliff face? We continued at a steady pace & again were concerned with fluid replacements, our prayers were answered at the Roman garrison at Housesteads, home to 1000 soldiers & the most impressive wall fort on open exhibition, the history & the wall is incredible & a visit is a must for everyone.

After hours at 1100ft above sea level with no oxygen or sherpas, wine gums providing a sugar rush, we descended to our next stopover, a fantastic farmhouse with everything required except that it is 31+miles from the end, blimey.

Naturally we must mention the local ale, Nell's brew is a fine beer named after a sheepdog living at the micro-brewery where it is produced. An essential part of our recovery.

Anyway time to sign off, fatigued,sunburnt, sore feet, de-hydrated, aching,weary but no blisters yet & with only 31miles to go, the end is near.

The American tourists are providing us with good comedy material . . Lincoln, which part of London is that? More on that on Friday.

Todays timings. Departed 9.03am arrived 7.28pm, 10hrs 23mins & we can still feel every step.

Bye for now

Peter & Chris

Friday 9th May

Today we walked across flatter, lower terrain, but there were some cheeky hills thrown into the mix just to keep the calves working! The Wall became less & less visible, although the Chesters fortress is truly spectacular.

Much of the walk involved skirting around fields dodging the deposits, and we also had our first taste of rain, albeit a couple of light showers.

We arrived a bit earlier at our B&B than previous days, but wear & tear is taking its toll with aches, pains & blisters rearing their ugly heads!

We are staying in Wylam, the birthplace of 'Father of the Railways' George Stephenson in 1781. It can be found in theTyneValley and was originally a colliery village. Oh, and it is home to the Boathouse, CAMRA's pub of the year! It has 12 local micro-brewery ales. Just thought you'd like to know!

Time for a few hours shut-eye before setting off on the final leg of our expedition, 19 miles into the capital of the Geordie nation commonly known as the Toon, and birthplace of such eminent figures as Steve Cram, Sting, Paul 'Gazza' Gascoigne, and our very own Peter Gault!

'Howay the lads!'
Today's times were:
Departed 9.30
Arrived 5.21
Total 7hours 51minutes.

Saturday 10th May

The final day!

As the Romans would say
Veni Vidi Vici
. . we came . . we saw . . we conquered, or is that conked out!

Yep after all the build up, the training, the endless fundraising & all the e-mails that we annoyed everyone with, we finally emerged through Newcastle on Saturday afternoon at the Roman fort of Segedunum, which is officially the end of Hadrians Wall.

So the last day then.

We started at exactly the same point that we stopped the night before at 6.30pm. The last day was to take us throughTyneValley country park, through several villages before following the River Tyne through the centre Of Newcastle Upon Tyne and into the suburb of Wallsend.

The contrast from where we have been could not have been greater. From the Pennines and crags and the wilderness to the wildness that is Newcastle quayside on a weekend. The stag parties and hen nights were out in force in what is regarded as the party capital of the UK, as were battalions of the 'Toon Army' all decked out in black & white stripes enjoying the local brew, which is Newcastle Brown Ale of course.

From a distance it looked like herds of Zebras around a watering hole & that analogy is actually fairly close to reality!

They were all in full party mode whilst by this stage with five miles to go we just wanted to get to the end so we resisted the temptation of fancy dress and the cries of 'Howay the lads' . . and ploughed on.

The stretch along the River Tyne was long but interesting, under the bridges that span the river, Great North runners will know the Tyne Bridge of course, there are some working shipyards and cranes that serve as a reminder of what the industry once was & at one point we could have sworn we saw Kevin Keegan walking across the water surrounded by Lindesfarne & Gazza all singing 'Fog on the Tyne is all mine!', but it was a mirage & a sign that tiredness, and in fact madness, was starting to take effect.

Along the way we chatted to walkers, ramblers & mountain bikers who took an interest in what we were doing & we even raised some money on the way. We knew the yellow T shirts would pay off! Again the sentence 'You never know when you will need it' was used when people referred to the Air Ambulance, something we have heard said so often over the last seven months.

Then it was over.

We passed Swan Hunter shipyard on the river & there was the Roman Fort of Segedum & we stopped walking.

We had finished.

The last day had been 20 miles & we have clocked up a total of 92 miles using the Garmin GPRS.

Like everything the adventure had a beginning, a middle & an end.

A flat scenic start in Bowness on Solway, incredible climbs over the crags in the middle & the final weary leg through Newcastle.

A fantastic adventure for a superb charity & we will try to link a page to Flickr.com from this webpage & post some photographs.

Thankyou to everyone who sponsored us & we’ll give the result of our competition very soon.

Hello there and thank you for visiting our webpage. The Air Ambulance is totally reliant on public donations & sponsorship to keep it in service so please help by donating any amount you can.

What are we doing then . . ? We are walking the full length of Hadrian’s Wall, 85miles, in early May, and our aim is to raise as much money as possible for the Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, which is Lincolnshire Co-operative's charity of the year .

So who are we then . . ?Chris & Pete, both 40 something, Area Managers with Lincolnshire Co-operative Ltd, and fair to say approaching our sell by date, though we see ourselves as more of a mature, thinking person’s Ant & Dec! Fairly average, suit wearing, Mondeo driving, semi-active normal sort of blokes really, which makes this whole adventure a bit more of a challenge.

Have we started training for this . .? We have only 1 day to go before we are off! So training wise we are not going to help ourselves much with long distance walking this close, in marathon running speak we would be "tapering" but as it is alot further than a measly 26miles we will be training as much as we can to the day we go & then we will just wing it, and trust that, as the clipboard toting, quick quipping Dennis Norden would say "It,ll be alright on the night", before placing it in the file marked 'Bloopers!'

We recently completed the Belvoir Challenge which was a 15mile yomp around the Vale of Belvoir, all cross country, muddy beyond belief and whilst some would say undulating, we say downright hilly! it It was a great day & gave us a real feel for the terrain & the hills of Northumberland coming up in May.

As you will see from the photo on this page we walk so fast that the other competitors in the Belvoir Challenge had to wear running shorts & trainers to keep up with our blistering pace . . . We think this photo really captured that winning grin of champions as we steamed over the finish line as winners . . . . not really, its the taking part that counts & there is something noble & English about coming last.

Recently we collected sponsorship in the Moorland Centre Co-op in Lincoln, and the Co-op in Market Rasen, and many very kind Lincolnshire Co-operative customers added to our total with generous donations totalling over £500! Thank you to all those who supported us. 

We have also collected outside the Lakeside Co-op in Balderton, and the generous Balderton and Newark folk donated £350, so thanks for that! 

We walked the Lincoln 10K as planned, walking round the course in a time of 1hr33mins, not quite an Olympic record, but not bad considering that we carried a Roman standard/banner & had our trusty band of Centurions collecting money from the crowd along the route. As the ex-Tottenham Chairman, Sid James lookalike, Amstrad billionaire Sir Alan Sugar would have nearly said "You're tired"! And, we were! 

We have now achieved and beaten our fundraising target of £2000 & to all of you who have donated so far thankyou very much. We still need any donation you can give us so please click "sponsor us now" & show your support for the Air Ambulance.

Many thanks to all of those who have supported us & donated to this fantastic cause..

So how can you help . .?  As the ex- Boomtown Rats frontman, Band Aid founder and charity god Sir Bob Geldof once said . .  “Give us as much money as we know you have” . . . so please dig deep for this fantastic cause and sponsor us now!

The Air Ambulance needs your support, thankyou very much for your kind donation.