Hadrian's - Day 9 - Wallsend The End

I don’t have breakfast at this hotel so I’ve eaten a protein bar from home. There’s no reason to leave the hotel before 8 since the Roman fort at Segedenum doesn’t open until 10 and it should take me about 2 hours to get there. That’s the official end of Hadrians Wall Path and where I will get my final stamp in the passport.  

Since I have some time I’ll fill you in on a couple of  things I’ve forgotten to mention over the last two days. First of all, I’m sure you’re all dying to know about the 6 divas. Well, the taxi driver who picked me up to take me back to the trail from the Duke of Wellington Inn told me he had been picking up some women from a group of 6 from the states. He said they’re a day ahead of you so they didn’t share the same itinerary as me. He picks them up and takes them partially to the next destination where they walk a bit into town. It sounds like there may be a couple who are walking most of it anyway. I’m pretty sure I recognized two of them at one of the passport stamping locations (which are all accessible by car, bus, bike, foot etc) and they were meeting a taxi there. So you can literally drive to each passport stamping location without ever walking one bit of the trail. That kind of takes away the meaning of the passport. 

The other interesting bit of news is a section of Hadrian's Wall was just discovered in a busy urban area near Newcastle after works on a water main were taking place. The B&B owner was telling me at breakfast day before yesterday that it was on the news that morning. 

The remarkable 1900 year old discovery was made after workers from Northumbrian Water were carrying out a mains replacement in the area just outside the city center of Newcastle. 

A section of about 3 meters long was revealed during routine work. It is believed to be from one of the earliest phases of the wall because it was constructed using such large blocks of stone, where later phases used much smaller pieces of stone. It's astounding to me that they are still uncovering sections almost 2000 years later. 

   

I don't have a map for the walk beyond Wallsend but plan to follow a cycle path along the river to Tynemouth. According to my research, that seems to be the prevailing method for those walking all the way to the coast. It's the last push. The walk today will be about 10 miles of city walking from my lodging in the city center of Newcastle.

I really enjoy walking 10+ miles in a day and would love to do it 2-3 times a month. The challenge of a long walk is doing 10-15 miles day after day. Over the last 8 days, I've averaged 14 miles per day and I'm feeling it. Tomorrow I will be sitting on a train for 4 hours so I will give my legs and feet a rest.

But that's tomorrow. Today it is very overcast with chance of rain on and off all day, but I’m excited to keep going. It has been raining this morning and the streets are very wet but as I leave the hotel it is just a drop or two now and then. 

The Black Gate of Newcastle Castle

Saint Nicholas Street Overpass

A medieval castle built on the site of the fortress that gave the city its name. The most prominent remaining structures are the Castle Keep, and the Black Gate. 

High Level Bridge Road and Railway

I walked out on the bridge to get a photo of the other bridges (see below). An intended detour. 

The arched bridge in the background is the Tyne Bridge. Built for the new age of the motorized vehicle and to cope with increasing traffic crossing the Tyne, it was a major engineering feat for the early 1900's. At the time of its construction it was the world's longest span bridge. 

The bridge in the background is the one I walked across. 

You can see the Millenium Bridge behind me. More about it shortly. 

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

The Gateshead Millenium Bridge 

A pedestrian and cyclist tilt bridge. 

It's a very unique design with the arch tilting one way and the cables holding the walkway. 

Hard to tell from the photos. 

The Swirl Pavilion is modern art built from concrete, ashlar and metal paying tribute to the former trades in the area. 

Looking back at Newcastle

The busy inner-city riverside walk gets quieter and more industrial as Newcastle fades away behind me.

I'm at a point along the riverside walk where there are more than a couple of shady characters. Empty beer cans litter the trail and it feels like the place underage kids go so they won’t get caught. 

A group of runners in training. Their coach was really pushing them up the stairs, down the ramp, up the ramp. I want to see knees up,  knees up, knees up!!! It made me hurt just watching them. 

 Always good to know I'm going the right direction. 

More industrial areas. 

This sign is a bit confusing

Going through a residential area 

Damask rose

Yes please!!!

Turning off a pretty average-nothing street, I arrive at a cute little marina area. A sign tells me it's a place called St Peter’s Basin and it’s lovely. 

I love the reflection of the clouds in the river Tyne. 

I pass a few houses and then it’s just me and the trail again.

I decided to walk up on the rail to avoid the wet path. 

Lots more tree canopies for you Jo Anne. 

Vicki, you know how we always give walkers at the park names? Well I've become known as the lady in the pink jacket and orange pack. The aussies told me that. Her husband asked her how she remembered I was the lady from Texas. She said I haven't seen anyone else out here in a pink jacket, have you? I told her what's so funny about that is I NEVER wear pink, but I needed a light rain jacket and this was the only color they had on sale. 😆 Sorry it barely shows in the pic. 

More industry

A trail of daisies

They're so pretty

You probably think I'm putting the same pics in over and over again but I'm not. Every time I come out of one tree tunnel I go into another. 

I don’t always believe in signs, but when there’s literally one right in front of you, you kind of have to. Someone has attached handwritten notes to the blue railing that guides around the river walk. Positive affirmations; and one of them feels like it’s speaking to me. It says “Life is tough, but so are you”. I think I needed that.

Yes I will keep going. 

We could buy 100 cans of white spray paint and mark all the cracks at the trail. Or maybe 200. 

I left Newcastle 3 miles ago, it's 1 1/2 to Wallsend, and 7 to the coast at Tynemouth (so named because it is the mouth of the Tyne, duh) took me a minute. 

Another one of those fancy sign posts. 

Now that's the ticket. He said, enjoy your walk when he sped by. 

I am on the C2C bike path. 

The riverside trail ends, or rather starts climbing. The trail doubles back but at a higher elevation. A sign points to the Roman museum, and shows Bowness-on-Solway is 84 miles away.

And I've done it!!! I've officially completed Hadrians Wall Path from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend. It was rather anticlimactic, no fanfare at the beginning or the end, no high five, or good job, or anything. So I said, well done me!

Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian’s Wall. The town hosted the fort Segedunum which protected the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall. In dedication to the Romans, Latin signs are dotted throughout the town.

Roman soldier statue

I look to the left and there it is. The final piece of the wall. 

Standing at the easternmost point of Hadrian’s Wall and guarding the mouth of the River Tyne lies the remains of the Roman fort of Segedunum. Built in AD127, Segedunum was in fact part of an extension to Hadrian’s Wall, built some five years after the main construction project had begun. The original eastern terminus to the wall was instead four miles to the west at Pons Aelius in the center of modern day Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The construction of this extension is notable for two reasons. First, the curtain wall for this extension was built without a defensive vallum (defensive ditch) to the south. Second, the wall here is built to an extremely narrow gauge of only 2.3 meters, with the foundations only slightly wider at 2.4 meters.

At its peak, Segedunum would have held up to 600 hundred Roman troops, broken down into 120 cavalrymen and 480 infantry. In the 2nd century AD, the resident legion were mainly drafted in from Belgium, while in the 3rd and 4th centuries the legion were mainly drafted from the Alsace region of France.

It is thought that Segedunum was occupied all the way up until the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 410AD, although it is possible that it was vacated slightly earlier than this, due to the massive empire-wide recall of troops at the end of the 4th century. It is important to note that between 400 and 410AD, Hadrian’s Wall was being maintained by just a skeleton force of Roman auxiliaries and only a limited amount of information from this period has survived.

Today there’s not much that remains of Segedunum, thanks to a large estate of Victorian terrace houses built directly on top of it in 1884. The estate was eventually knocked down in the 1970s, and the current remains and accompanying museum opened to the public in the late 1990s.

The museum itself provides a viewing platform for those interested in getting a birds-eye view of the site. The galleries however are strongly focused on children, so if you want an in-depth overview of the site, you will be disappointed. That being said, it was highly recommended to visit the museum if only for the fabulous food canteen on the first floor – you can get a full roast dinner for a fiver (5£ = $6.38)!! Given that most dinners cost around 15£-20£, that's a real bargain. I'm skipping the roast dinner and saving my calories for a special treat in Tynemouth. 

  I round the corner to the museum entrance and find the last stamp for my passport. Check. There, to the right of a Roman soldier statue outside the main museum, I spot the sign. I made it. 84 miles. 134km. But that’s only if you traveled the wall directly and didn’t have any diversions or off-trail lodging. My mileage from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend is 126.1 miles, 288,800 steps, and is equivalent to 357 times up the stairs at my house. I threw everything at this hike and it threw it right back and then some, through rain, wind, 100 of gates and stiles, through  cow and sheep poo fields, over boulders, and miles and miles of tarmac. But I'm not done yet. I'm on to Tynemouth. 

I think something is amiss. I passed a sign about a mile back that said Tynemouth 5 miles. How can it still be 5 miles?

Now it says 3 miles. That's more like it. 

Walked through a beautiful park. There were many walkers, dog walkers and cyclists out today. 

I will paint this rose and the bud behind it. So beautiful and the whole bush was covered with them trailing over the fence. 

These are living islands, floating ecosystems. They aren't looking too healthy.  

Getting closer

A good reminder as I tend to look the other direction coming from the US. 

This building is for sale. I doubt they get many lookers since it's in such poor condition, but what a neat old building. 

Tynemouth village is a popular place for people from far and wide to come for a variety of reasons. It is steeped in history, has some fabulous attractions, great shopping and the best fish and chips shop in all of England. That's right! This is my special treat. I decided to allow myself one serving of fish and chips while in England and this was touted as the best. What better time than in celebration of my walk? What a disappointment! I only ate about half the fish and one "chip". They were soggy with grease. It's the thought, right?

The mouth of the Tyne

Looking back at Fish Quay (key).

The walk along the seafront is stunning and is rewarded with views of golden sandy beaches. The promenade brings you from the historic North Shields Fish Quay.

The village has strong maritime history connections, the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade was the first of its kind in the world and its unique story is told in a small museum. The magnificent monument to Lord Collingwood looking across the river is in honor of the local born Admiral who took over from Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. There are some truly breathtaking walks to take around Tynemouth. 

The dramatic Tynemouth Priory & Castle dominates the headland. The site dates back centuries and is the burial place of Saints and Kings of the old Kingdom of Northumbria.

I've reached the North Sea, the true end of my coast to coast walk. 

And I walk into the surf to make it real. Brrr it was cold. 

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands.

Isaiah 42:10-12

There’s this kind of weird feeling that follows an achievement like this. More so when there’s no-one there to celebrate with you. I started the walk without fanfare, and ended it the same way. It feels weird to just go back to the hotel, like there should be more. I would call Kim but it's 4 am in Texas so I won't. 

Exhausted, I walk to the train station. There's a huge market today so I wander through it. 

The creperie had gluten free, dairy free crepes. How could I resist that? 

She's making my Belgian dark chocolate crepe. Yumm!

Here's my train. 

 I am back at my hotel in about 30 minutes. Showered, with clean clothes, I relax in the room and finish this portion of the blog. I walked Hadrian’s Wall and more. 

Tomorrow I take the train to  Cheltenham where I will meet up with Jo Anne. Yay!

She's on her way. 

I gave you the total stats earlier so I will just give you today's with some intentional and unintentional detours. 

Stats

Steps - 35,213

Miles - 15.7

Elev gain - 917' (flat???)

As I complete this section of my three-part adventure, I am humbled, once again, at the magnificence of God's creation. This walk has been a generous gift from our heavenly Father and a balm to my soul. I am so blessed.

"The single most important thing to understand about worship is that the only worship that is acceptable to God is worship that proceeds from a heart that is trusting in God, and in God alone." R.C. Sproul