Joanne's long walks: Hadrian's Wall Path Day 6: Heddon-on-the-Wall

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Hadrian's Wall Path Day 6: Heddon-on-the-Wall - Newcastle-upon-Tyne (19 km)

After breakfasting in the company of another walker and the proprietor of Houghton North Farm hostel, Jennifer and I set off at a good pace towards Newcastle - but before we had got very far, we were waylaid by villagers in Heddon-on-the-Wall. First we stopped to look at the longest section of broad Wall (i.e. ten-foot rather than eight-foot Wall) still standing. Before we had been there a minute, a very friendly lady with a small terrier came along and struck up a conversation. She started out talking about her dog, and then about the horses in the adjacent field, but when she got onto the topic of the Royal Family, we knew we were going to have a hard time escaping; luckily a group of cyclists arrived at the site, distracting the terrier and therefore its mistress. We beat a hasty retreat, but shortly thereafter made the mistake of entering the village church, St. Andrew's. It being Sunday morning, a service was about to start, and when we told the attendant at the door we just wanted to take a peek at the church before proceeding on our way along the Wall, he embarked on a personal tour of the church, which he defined as "just a quick look round before the service" but which went into considerably more detail than we had bargained for. However, a crisis arose when a desperate parishioner called to his attention the fact that the priest had failed to arrive for the service, and once again we were able to make an escape, at the price of paying 20 p for a brochure explaining the details of the church architecture and stained glass windows that the attendant hadn't had time to illustrate to us himself.

A long stretch of broad Wall - with friendly lady & terrier approaching!

Once we finally managed to leave behind the extremely friendly inhabitants of Heddon-on-the-Wall, we were able to proceed towards Newcastle at a reasonably rapid pace, there being little else to distract us along the way. It was a pleasant walk along the north bank of the Tyne, past a golf course, cricket grounds and a rowing club, through parkland on the site of former coal mines, past a fragrant baked goods factory and on into an increasingly urban landscape. At Newcastle Central Station I said goodbye to Jennifer, off to rejoin her family for the working week, and checked into my hostel, where I recovered a small bag of things I had sent ahead care of Hadrian's Haul, did some grocery shopping and bought a waist pouch at the five-pound shop to replace the one with a broken zipper that I had thrown away!