Twice brewed

Todays walk:21 km
Time used:6.5 hours
Blisters:none
Breakfast:excellent
Lunch:acceptable
Weather:english
Bad knees:1 (Davinder)

First about the bad knee. A combination of fatness and age caused Davinders knee to break down, according to him.

A lot of up and down today, but sadly we are still talking about walking. And the wall was visible next to large parts of the track. We ate our lunch inside an old roman milecastle. These small castles could be found every mile, and was were the locals were allowed through to sell their merchandises.

They say people have taken the stones from the wall to create houses and so on, but there were nearly no houses were we walked today, so it is a bit strange the wall has more or less disappeared. I had to find the reason. And it was not far away. Our guidebook tells us that some english general decided to build a road from Newcastle to Carlisle in 1754, and what was more natural than to build large parts of it on top of the wall. That explains why we've been walking so close to a road large parts this far...

We've checked into a B&B now, and will go to a pub called "Twice brewed" to celebrate new years eve. There is another pub not far called "Once brewed". The creativeness in this region, at least when it comes to naming pubs, doesn't seem to be impressive. Hopefully the creativeness when it comes to making the food will be better, although I will not be surprised if the menu says Dish one, Dish two, etc.

The mobile networks might be overloaded later on tonight, so we use this opportunity to wish all our readers a happy new year!

Chollerford

A short walk today, 16 km. The next part is the most beautiful on the trip, but it also means it is the longest one without accomodation possibilities. So we decided to stop early today, to have plenty of time for tomorrows part.

The weather was rough today. Our backpacks were covered with a layer of ice when we arrived at the Crown, the place we will stay tonight. Again excellent food, and plenty of it. Yesterdays dinner was excellent too by the way.

I am surprised by the food in this region, whereas norwegian food is described as "how to store it as long as possible and still be able to eat it.", english food is normally just described as "throw it all in a bucket and eat it." Not so here. Crisp fish and chips. Perfect roast chicken with stuffing, rich gravy, ten different kinds of vegetables etc. etc. Not to talk about hot chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice on its side. Prices for the meals vary from 2£ for a nice bowl of soup to 6£ for the above mentioned ones.

Scott

Before I went to England, I finished a book about the four polar explorers, Nansen, Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton. Today made me think about those expeditions. First of all, we are also on an expedition. Secondly, there is a lot of snow here. The weather conditions here could nearly be described as arctic. Thirdly:Scott tried to use horses and motorized vehicles to get to the pole, but always stated that the only real way was doing it on foot. Although we are not going to the pole, we are on foot.

As it has been really cold here today, at least for England (-2), all the gatelocks have frozen, and we've been forced to climb over them. Closer inspection showed that they were made by relatives of the people who constructed Scotts motorized vehicles.

We've taken in at a pub called Robin Hood. Looking forward to relax there the next hours and have a good nights sleep.

Facts:
Distance walked: 36 km
Time used: 9 hours
Blisters:1
Breakfast:horrible
Bacon sandwich:super
Lunch:excellent and cheap
Weather:blue sky and sun!
Dinner:to be announced

The happy chaps greats you!

First blister

25 km on the way, we have stopped in Heddon-on-the-wall, to have lunch. The walking today has been mostly along the river Tyne, passing several famous bridges. We stopped in a cafe under one of them this morning to have a bacon sandwich and a cafe au lait.

A layer of snow is covering England right now, and tomorrow more snow is to come. It makes a nice scenery.

Davinder has got a small blister, but nothing serious. We will walk 8 more kilometers before we settle in a B&B, which the owner of the pub where we are now, is kindly organising for us.

Hadrians lodge

Have met up with Davinder and Ravinder now! After a small dinner we've translocated to the bar where they are showing - you guessed it - an episode of 'Rome', a series about romans. Couldn't have been more appropriate as we're going to follow a roman wall for the next few days.

Landed

Snow on the runway here in England delayed our landing a bit.

I have landed in a city with metro stations named Wallsend and Hadrian Road. Chances should therefore be good for finding Hadrians wall itself.

The lady working in the metro information office first argued that the metro station Hadrian Road did not exist. That sounded strange to me, since my english friend, Davinder, had just short messaged me telling me that he had taken the metro there and that I could do the same thing. I told the lady the address of the hotel, which was Hadrian road. She said I should take the metro to Wallsend and gave me a map of the metro, circleing that station. Ironically, the next station after Wallsend was Hadrian Road, and of course I couldn't resist pointing that out. Next thing, the metro vending machine did not take bills, and the machine for exchanging bills to coins was out of order.

On the metro now. Time to start do some walking soon...

Departure

After I had packed my backpack this morning, I sat down to write a checklist of the things I needed to bring with me. My 3 1/2 year old nephew wondered what I was doing, and I asked him to help me. He quickly came up with soda, food and backpack, which I guess really sums up what you need when you go backpacking. When I asked him if I should bring anything else, he looked thoughtful for a moment, before he suggested the two following items:football-ball and football-goal.

Later, as my departure approached, my mother lifted the backpack, breaching out that it was heavy! My niece, 5 1/2 years old, who had also been participating in the checklist making, quickly suggested, that if the backpack was heavy, I could leave the football-goal out.

I am now in the Torp express bus, heading for the airport.

Posting from my mobile

This is a post from my mobile just to check that it works.

The beginning

My parents have just served a perfect breakfast in front of the fireplace in Haugsbygd. It should contain at least enough energy to get me to Torp, Sandefjord, where the plane for Newcastle will leave this afternoon.

The plan is to walk along Hadrians wall from Walls end in Newcastle to somewhere after Carlisle.

Have a look here to read more about the wall:http://www.hadrians-wall.org