Day 4 - brutality & honesty

That was tough... The rollercoaster of ups & downs at the start wasn't a gentle easing into a long days walking,

The day had already started oddly. The French backpacker in my room at the hostel seemed unaccustomed to communal living... Including sleeping on the floor & lying on my socks... And being most put out when I asked for them back! Personally, my socks should be banned under the Geneva Convention. Oh well, a little late and annoyed...

The wall is a frequent companion, and you really begin to wonder what the Latin for "But Sarge... " is as there are many point where the rules were followed, and the line kept straight when an easier line could've been followed...

As the hills flatten out, the walking becomes more of a leg stretch, steps become paces and something similar to a march begins. The tea shops are again lumpy in their distribution... But the café at Birdswold was perfectly placed for lunch, on through Banks feeling slightly odd that for the first time in the walkings of the wall I'm not staying at the camping barn. The barn is half way for the day in distance, and the start of easy walking... As it got hotter, the inevitable happened and I dropped my water bottle...

Bugger...

Being me I have a spare bottle, and one of the delights of Hadrian's Wall is the honesty shacks; tea, coffee, water, nibbles in either shacks with well needed tables or just a box...

Monies paid, water taken on board it's the push to Carlisle, over the M6 and through the bucolic Rickerby Park. A mild detour to the hotel, and as the gloom turns into night I order my room service, slump in the shower and smile...

When I walked this with now defunct dickey ticker walking club this was two days walking, and as one day it's brutal, and to be honest about 3 miles longer than I'd have liked... However, it was done, often with a smile, no detours to the airport, and with a sense that the injuries must truly be over, because otherwise this day would not have finished...

TTFN

Paul