Another lovely day for a walk

We walked 12 miles today.

No problem really, except that we were expecting at day of 8.5 miles.  Don't know what happened really (except we added a mile walking around Heddon-on-the-Wall).  It was another lovely day walking in Northern England.  Rain was predicted and we left the Keelman in cool, damp weather, but conditions improved throughout the day and rain never appeared.

Breakfast was lovely and generous at the Keelman.  Carol had not slept well due to an extended session of loud, bawdy song singing in the beer garden last night.  Dave slept through it and Robert and I didn't hear it.  (Our room was on the back side of the hotel.)  A fellow approached our breakfast table and introduced himself as Tim.  He told us a few anecdotes and admitted to being the ringleader of last night's songfest.  He was staying at the hotel as part of a reunion of schoolmates.  He suggested that we would see him again at our hotel tonight too.  (We must have misunderstood him).

We set out about 9am, with rainjackets on and packs covered.  The walk continued along the Tyne River and was lovely.  Green, lush countryside.  We met several people walking their dogs and two girls on horses.  One man stopped and told us some of the local history.

We soon left the river and turned north to Heddon-on-the-Wall.  This is a delightful village, at the top of a hill, where we saw the first large expanse of Hadrian's Wall.  We circled the village a couple of times, looking for the petrol station/convenience store.  This is really hard to do since the village has only about 10 buildings.  We finally asked a man who spoke to us from his front yard.  He turned out to be the mayor of the town (locals call it "Heaven-on-the-Wall.") and he pointed us in the right direction.

We bought supplies for a picnic lunch at the store, then headed west to Rudchester Fort and Two Hoots.  The countryside was just beyond lovely.  Fields of wheat, wildflowers and rapeseed (used to make canola oil) stretched to the horizon.  Sheep and cows grazed.  We didn't see much of the wall after Heddon, but walked for a long way in ditch dug in front of the wall (on the north side--the Scottish side) for additional defense.  Some of it was pretty muddy.  We stopped to a picnic lunch on one of the stiles used to cross a fence.  The day warmed and cleared and it was just a lovely walk.

We walked through Harlow Hill and stopped for a break at the picnic tables at the Great Northern Lake. On to East Wallhouses where we stamped our Hadrian's Walk passports at the Robin Hood pub.  Our B&B for the night was another mile walk north of the pub, but we stopped at the Vellum Tearoom for a scone & tea (or lemon cake and lemon meringue pie for Robert and ice cream for Dave).  Fortified, we walked on to the Marfen High House.

Arriving about 4:30pm, we were happy to be told that our hosts would drive us back for dinner.  We had seen a restaurant next to the tea room, David Kennedy (named for the chef), and had made 7:00pm reservations for dinner.  Spruced up and rested, we headed back for dinner.  It was delicious!  Dave & I had locally smoked salmon to start.  Robert had fish & chips (but fancy), Carol had a Gruyere tart, I had roast chicken and Dave had slow-cooked pork belly.  Chocolate and raspberry tart and a selection of cheeses for dessert.  Nice end to a fine day.

Off to bed to be ready for another 10 mile day tomorrow.  The weather is supposed to be rainy.