Features and blogging

As with so many other people, our summer this year is consisting of UKations rather than overseas travel. Easy to organise and lots of fun, so far.
Our first trip took place last week, a train pootle up north to walk a section of Hadrian’s Wall, and what a wall! (when we eventually found it). Those Romans were excellent estate agents and great engineers too.
We went with close friends, a family of four to match our three. We first met while living as neighbours in Singapore and we’ve done some fun trips together: Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali, Devon – and now Northumberland.
When travelling together it’s an obvious but crucial necessity that everyone is broadly on the same page. Our kids are the same age, our likes and dislikes are pretty much the same and, as it turns out, we’re all roughly at the same level of fitness. This came in handy when navigating the ups and downs of our hilly three-day march.
When one person sat down to re-tie a shoe and stayed put for a while, the rest of us sat down too. When someone decided it was lunchtime, out came the sandwiches. If a quick person was darting up ahead and two slow ones (including me, usually) idled at the back, those in the middle section bundled along quite happily, everyone marching to their own beat. This made the trip more enjoyable than it already would have been.
Some have asked about the route, planning and logistics, so here’s how we did it.
Several companies offer tours of Hadrian’s Wall, ‘tours’ meaning they set you up and you do the rest. We went with Macs Adventure and opted for the five-day walk. Don’t panic (because I did at first), five days just means two days of travel and three walking. That’s still a lot for some and I did find the idea daunting. I didn’t do as much pre-exercise as I planned, but I did spend the week before being super-careful of what I ate and drank (or, rather, didn’t drink), and this made the three-day trek much comfier. So that’s my first tip.
The second is to travel light. Having a company organise your bags from A to Z means you only need to carry essentials throughout the day. Due to unseasonably hot weather for TheNorth, our essentials turned out to be: blister plasters, water, snacks, wipes, sun cream, hats. On days one and three we passed by cafes with toilet facilities, but on day two there was nothing but fields. Just saying…
The route wasn’t hardcore, but we felt the odd ligament twinge every night. But the next day we were up and ready again. The teens were a bit wilty sometimes but we were doing some good distances: day one 17k, day two 22k, and day three 15k. For the most part they loved it, and map-read the whole way. The best bit of advice I gleaned in advance was that it’s the consecutive days that make a difference. So you might be a walker but when you’re doing it day after day it’s tough on toes. That advice didn’t solve things but it did set my expectations.
Having done the walk, and not just done it but really enjoyed it, my best tip is one that I made up myself, not having found it in any of my research. Practice your stepping in advance: walk up and down stairs, find a hill and make friends with it. Much of the walk involved scrambling up and down steep banks, navigating narrow but steep paths with crumbly footholds, and we lost count of the number of stiles we had to hop over. Thighs, I’m so sorry.
Vertigo is another cheeky bugger tucked insidiously into the route. I’d done a bit of searching and surmised that it could be ‘hilly’ but nothing prepared me for the vertiginous drop down to the Sycamore Gap (pictures don’t do it justice, by the way). This was day two, billed as the most magical part of the route and for good reason. Awesome views from the highest points meant bracing for impact several times. I managed the heights with the help of an encouraging team at my back (and front), but at times I resorted to finding lower paths. Do what works for you is my tip here (but mind the cows, as one of my re-routes took me through a cattlefield).
Our tour company provided us with an app that allowed us to follow a pre-plotted Ordnance Survey route. Charting the red wiggly red line was simple: you just had to follow it. The other way of reading the route was to use the ‘Description’ bit of the app, a detailed list of directions for each route. This came in handy when the red wiggly line appeared to be taking us diagonally across another cow field (quick cross-check with details to find that the answer was indeed, “walk diagonally across the cow field”).
As hard as it was to go wrong, we did get lost once but that was my fault as I’d skipped a step. Anyway, none of the crew minded marching through the horse field the long way round. That’s the great thing about touring with good (and patient) friends, everyone’s high on fresh air and amazing scenery. And snacks, of course.
Good food is important on fitness-based holidays. We pre-ordered lunches from every b&b, a service that’s not part of the package but highly recommended, especially on days where there are no cafes en route. This meant the start of each day was tough-going pack-wise, but by early afternoon we’d eaten everything and those packs felt much lighter.
My last few tips (if after reading this you’re still keen on the idea of scampering up steep inclines and marching with sheer joy across the top of breezy, view-filled ridges) are :
• Join English Heritage. Most of the old ruins are on sites that are managed by EH and they’re well worth a visit.
• Pack more water than you think you’ll need. If the weather’s really hot, get some electrolyte tabs and add to bottles to supplement lost salts. I’ve never used them up til now but they were essential on the hot days.
• Read up on distances if you think the trudging might be tricky. The distances look okay on paper and we managed just fine, but our group contained walkers, runners and footballers. If you’re not at a basic level of alright-ish fitness then the going could get tough.
What next? I’m writing this from Cornwall, already well into our second UK trip. Next week is a quick spin up to the Midlands and back, and that’ll be it for Summer 21 – but what a cracking start!
Next year? I’ve got my eye on a coast-to-coast walk if the panny-D is still preventing overseas trips. Starting my training now.
• Macs Adventure is the company we used for our wall walk. They’ll book your b&bs and take the big luggage from point to point (15k each but that was ample for three days). You also get paper maps, app maps, a guide book and plenty of advice in advance. The rest is up to you!