Vole Explosion

VENI, VIDI, VOLE-Y

Saturday XVII-IX-MMXXII

Greenhead to Haughtongreen Bothy

   I sleep really well and wake up long before my alarm, feeling much more optimistic than yesterday. Shave for the first time on the trip and have coffee and cereal bars. I pay a quick visit to Thirlwall Castle just outside the guesthouse before moving on into a cold, crisp, sunny morning.

   I stop off at Walltown Country Park visitor centre hoping they do bacon sandwiches. They don’t, so I have an ice cream instead. I also buy a couple of bottles of beer for tonight in the bothy. It’s extra weight, but I’m only doing a short ten mile day today.

   Soon after, I reach Hadrian’s Wall and continue along it as it follows the line of the crags. This is all familiar to me as I did the Hadrian’s Wall Path in 2015, albeit in the other direction. It might seem like an easy walk, but it’s very uppy-downy and it soon takes it out of me. This year is the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall, so it’s a nice time to visit.

   Two Buzzards hang in the air low over the crag. It’s a sunny Saturday so plenty of walkers are out and about and I stop to chat frequently.

   Just before midday I stop for a rest at the unexcavated site of Great Chesters Fort (Aesica to the Romans). That’s three miles done already at a fairly slow pace. I’m in a great mood today and hiking conditions are perfect – soft, short turf underfoot, clear skies with visibility for miles, and a cooling breeze. Today, unlike yesterday, the wind is at my back. I don’t have to move fast – I can stop and rest as much as I like, cover one mile every hour, and still arrive in good time. I haven’t taken any Ibuprofen this morning but so far the pain is minimal.

   A huge flock of Starlings is chuntering away noisily in a farmyard tree and occasionally I hear bursts of Curlew mimicry. The Curlew is the symbol of Northumberland National Park so the local Starlings must hear their bubbling calls regularly in the Spring and Summer and, master mimics that they are, they’ve incorporated the sound into their repertoire. Right now the Curlews are more likely to be on an estuary or coastal saltmarsh further south. Every now and then the Starling flock suddenly falls silent as one entity, in response to some unknown cue.

   I cross paths with a hiker in a kilt. I want to tell him to get back on his own side of the wall, but he’s quite big and I’m a coward.

   Early afternoon and it’s time to lighten my load a little by eating some lunch. This is when The Tall Guy comes past with his daughter and her boyfriend. He is being joined along the PW by various friends and family on different days in a kind of tag team system. I joke that it’s because he’s not allowed out unless accompanied by a responsible adult.

   I pass various Hadrian’s Wall landmarks – Winshields Crag (the highest point along the wall), the road at Steel Rigg, Sycamore Gap, Crag Lough. This morning I was friendly and gregarious, chatting to everyone I met, but now the crowds of day trippers and groups of noisy teens are starting to get on my nerves. This is the busiest part of the PW since Jacob’s Ladder on day one, at least away from the towns and villages.

   It’s a relief when I arrive at Rapishaw Gap, where the PW parts company with Hadrian’s Wall. I rest for a while before turning north and heading into the barbarian lands beyond the Roman frontier.

   No matter how short the day’s walk, and at just over ten miles this is the shortest so far, the last couple of miles are always a gruelling slog that seems to go on forever. Psychologically, you know you’re near the finish line and your body reacts accordingly by starting to wind down too early.

   I enter the pine plantation of Wark Forest, part of the larger Kielder Forest, but soon turn off the trail for a 650m walk to Haughtongreen Bothy, arriving at 5.40pm. Kick off my boots and open a beer. I’m the first one here. This is my first time staying in a bothy – a new experience and another excuse to not set up my tent. I get first choice of sleeping area.

   Despite having been to visit Housesteads Fort and then seen off his daughter, The Tall Guy arrives only ten minutes after me. The last occupants of the bothy have left a spliff behind, which is jolly decent of them. Whether or not we smoke it I can neither confirm nor deny at this time.

   Shortly a couple of young PW hikers arrive. They are on their honeymoon and are both professional musicians. By coincidence, I had unknowingly seen one of them perform earlier this year as part of the Hallé Orchestra accompanying Björk at Blue Dot festival in July. Not long after, a group of four cyclists arrive – three men and a woman, all PhD students from Newcastle University. Young, vibrant and outdoorsy, they have just cycled from Newcastle and are cycling back in the morning. They get a fire going and we all sit around chatting and eating until we start drifting off to “bed” around 10pm.

   I have now walked more than 200 miles. Around 50 miles left to go.

10.5 miles; 17 km; 8 hours