Hadrian's Wall Trek - The final count down!

 

It's the final count down! This is our last long walk before the trek. We are super serious and want to make sure we have cover all scenarios so we have planned a long circular route that would have everything! 

What I haven't account for, was at the end of camping last weekend, I managed to fell on my arse playing football against the kids (mid teen and younger).  FIRST CONTACT!!!! Other than my ego I have also bruised my lower back and have been in pain all week. It gets better every day and don't actually hurt at all when I walk. But occasionally it will give me a sharp shock of pain when I move in a certain way. I'm hoping it'll be gone by Friday but it would not affect our trek! Christine would carry me if she have to (even though she haven't agreed to it yet!)!

For this 10 mile trek we are packing for real! All the clothes, toiletries,  electrical, first aid kit, full water bladder and even extra pair of trainers. Came to a total of 9 or 10 kg which is the top limit! This does not accounted for food that we will have to carry as we have reviewed the route and plan out which day we require extra food and where we can get them from along the way.

So we have our full trekking wear with fast dry tops, walking trousers, thick socks and walking boots.  We even have walking sticks as apparently 4 limbs are better than two! Plus it gives me an opportunity and pretend to be a Jedi.

It's Sunday lunch time, temperature in the low 20°Cs, cloudy,  slight wind with a chance of shower. Perfect time to practice!

We set off on our round trip to Thurleigh and straight away we came across a light shower! As we are well prepared we quickly try to take out our ponchos to whip it over our heads! As it's the first time we've ever used them, we have to get it out of the packaging, unfold it, work out which way it goes and how to put it on. It took so long to cover ourselves, by the time we're ready, the shower had pretty much stopped leaving us looking like Little Red Riding Hood's goth sister and a cheap Palpatine look-alike.

We've also found the walking sticks are not as useful for us other than posing or fighting off small animals. So we packed them up for the rest of the journey and considering ditching them altogether for the Hadrian's Wall trek.

We carry on our way and try to limit our pace so we won't tired ourselves out.  There were a coupe of stiles we have to climb over and because we have such heavy backpack the balancing feels really weird and we literally feeling a baby tackling the stairs for the first time!

We have to take a small detour when we got near Thurleigh as we have to cross a field with deadly cows. Well, maybe not exactly deadly but they were certainly massive and intimidating looking. We just took a photo with a friendly horse that came towards us and head for the road instead!

 

By the time we're on the main street in Thurleigh, the sun's out and was getting really warm! We also realised there aren't any pub on route but we found the nice Village Garden to stop off for snacks and rest.

While doing that, I have also fullfill my dream of drinking whiskey in the middle of the day on a park bench without being judged.  Good times!

 

After our little half way break, we followed a weird public footpath which is literally someone's back yard into a massive maize field.  We've managed to get lost on the wrong side of the path and ended up amongst some small trees where we got stuck!

It's definitely getting easier to be tired on the second half of the trek. We had to stop couple of times just to catch our breath.   Majority of the way are fields and bridal way.  I never realise maize field can be so slippery!  As the ground had been so dry, there are also many cracks and uneven surfaces making it quite hard to navigate adding strain to our ankles and feet!

The last quarter of the trek was getting tough as we have to walk up a giant hill before back to the familiar ground of Graze Hill and Country park.  Surprisingly my shoulders don't feel a thing with the heavy backpack but my feet definitely have complaints! It was starting to ache and sore slightly we couldn't wait to get home!  

So at the end it took us nearly 4 and 3/4 hours to do 9.7 miles with an average pace of 29:30 minutes per mile.  Consider all the stops and rests and being on unfamiliar ground.  We were really happy with that. But 7 consecutive days...... We will do it!  We are ready!  Let's go!!!!

Thank you for reading!  

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Yat and Christine 

31/07/22

@mindblmk