South Sheilds to Hexham - Day 20

Date: September 7th, 2009
Distance: 43 miles
Country: England
Song of the Day: Running Back - Thin Lizzy

I am starting to get better at getting up early. I was out of the camp site by 9:30. From their it was back into town, where I got lost and ended up wasting a bunch of time. But I found an old roman fort site in town called Arbeia. Very cool, also free which was nice. (I did give a donation.) They had a rebuilt west gate and part of the commanders villa. Pretty cool stuff. Plus some artifacts they had uncovered at the site. Pretty cool stuff.

From there I needed to cross the Tyne. I was taking Hadrian's Cycleway from Newcastle to Carlisle. The best way (from there) was by ferry. So I popped down to the water and grabbed the next crossing.

Then it was out to Wallsend, sort of a suburb of Newcastle (on Tyne, to be propper). There is another fort there called Seagundum, with another museum and a reconstructed bath house. I couldn't find any way to it from the bike path though. Instead I just got a picture of me next to the remaining section of wall there and moved on.

Didn't see much of the wall for basically the rest of the day. The cycleway doesn't really follow the wall in that area. I guess that is not a big loss since, in most areas, there really isn't anything left to see. The path leads along the waterfront of Newcastle though. This I found quite pleasant, if you could avoid all the other people on the waterfront. Getting out of Newcastle was a bit confusing, but I found my way.

Outside of Newcastle it was mostly on an old railroad grade or farm roads. The path was fairly well marked, but had a tendency to wander back and forth across obstacles, like the river Tyne or train tracks. This got quite annoying. Oh, also lots of areas are also used for grazing livestock. So they have gates. Some are easy enough. Others are nearly impossible on a bike with panniers. Quite frustrating.

I also realized that I was going the wrong way. When Horace Greely said "Go west young man" he wasn't talking about cycling across Briatain. This is because the winds go East. It wasn't too windy though. Just enough to annoy you when going up a steep hill.

I did get out in time to see Corbridge though. This is a roman fort just off of Hadrian's wall. I guess it was built (originally) during the time of Trajan. Then rebuilt a few times over the years as a rear base for troops along the wall. I also tried to see Chesters, but they were closing in 5 minutes and wouldn't let me in. Too bad really. Plus I had to go up this huge hill to get there. Damn.

From there I found a nice place that said it was a youth hostel, but was really a B&B. I can't really complain though. The people were friendly. Most of them were hiking the wall itself. I didn't envy all that walking. I also go a nice warm dinner and a full breakfast, plus a bed, for £20. Not bad.

-Dravis