Great English Walk Day 30 - 17 April 2018

Plankey Mill to forest south of Birney Hill
Walking 6.40am to 7.40pm
Distance walked today 20 miles
Distance walked so far 460 miles
Distance left 92 miles

An early start to get the final mileage down. I continued walking alongside and above the River Allen until I emerged into a National Trust car park with open loo facilities which was very convenient. Although the GEW route goes through Bardon Mill, that was out of my way and I was too early for any shop that might be open so I walked along roads and tracks northwards to the Housesteads museum (closed till 10am) and Hadrian's Wall. As Housesteads wasn't open, I had to climb fences to get into the area containing the remains of the Roman buildings and out again the other side.

I walked the Wall path for half a mile but it was very up and down with more to come so I dropped down to the B6318 which runs south of the Wall but without the undulations and followed this for 1.5 miles until a point where the Wall path descended to meet and run alongside the road and so rejoined it. In the two miles I walked this section, I passed more walkers than in the whole of this journey so far, I think.

Where the Wall path switches to the other side of the road, I took a bridleway north and then a little used lane past High and Low Moralee farms, before arriving in Wark where I bought a few food items and a very sparsely stocked shop.

The bridge at Wark

Crossing the River North Tyne, I walked to Birtley. Here I met Lesley Gosling who kindly filled a water bottle (and gave me a glass of orange juice) and, after hearing of my walk, sent me on my way with home baked cheese scones and a satsuma. It cheered me up no end.

From Birtley, I took field paths to the A68 and then a long farm track and over a couple of fields to enter the forest. I'm camped maybe a hundred yards inside but, so far, there isn't a proper path, just rough tussocky grass between densely planted conifers. It's very wet underfoot so I shall negotiate my way through in the morning. I'm not really looking forward to it! Anyway, the remaining mileage is now down to double digits.