I tend to try and walk 4 miles each day. Today being in Northumberland I decided to pop down south to Wallsend and walk
the HWP as far as Hedon on the Wall. A nice mainly town trail 15 miles. Getting my feet thoroughly slathered in oil, double socked and my Lidl backpack on for the first time I got the Taxi to Segedunum. Taxi driver pointed to the start of the walk. Gates were padlocked shut. Oh well hop around the back of the museum , over the road and up on to the track. So off I set on a cold morning wondering if my feet would hold out. I made good time right through to the new A1 Western bypass and then noticed the track veering off a fair old distance to get across the footbridge. I also wondered why the Romans would have built a wall on the northern side of the river when historically there were so few ford's to get across they could have better defended/collected taxes on the south bank. But hey ho hindsight is a great thing. Then I noticed the high hill half a mile to the north and thought "or they could have built up there". However they didn't and they left me with a huge detour up the hill over the road and back down to the river. Through a couple of nice parks where walking on the grass was preferred to using the very nice pavement. There were no signs to state that I couldn't. All in all quite pleasant until I tried to get a meal at the Boathouse, their selection of crisps and nuts was my only choice. Not realising that there was a coffee house within shouting distance I filed my belly with said articles. On again, passing aforementioned coffee house and silently cursing all the magpies around at my lack of patience.Then disaster struck, that bloody magpie giving me her bad luck because I had cursed her rather than asking after her children. I had just spotted my walking monitor flickering. Then the battery gave up the ghost on it. Next thing my phone died, viewranger now no use and no means of telling the time.I had a Harvey map in my bag, but hey the path is so well marked I didn't need to get that out if my bag. I was enjoying the walk a lot , really enjoying it. I suddenly roused from daydream mode when I had to jump over a section of very narrow path that was no longer in existence, swallowed by the river. Funny couldn't remember reading about this section of path. After what seemed an age I arrived at Wylam. At this point I had a huge row with myself. Why did you not bring your GPS why didnt I get the map out of my bag. So turning, I made my way back along the river to the acorn sign that I had not seen, because it isn't there. However Harvey was quite plain in relation to where I should have turned Then there lay that section inside private land around the golf course. With left turns leading away from Heddon and sudden rights giving the appearance of getting back on track.
Up the hill to the Three Tuns and on asking the time I realised the next bus back to Newcastle was only ten minutes hence so a swift half and outside to the conveniently positioned bus stop.
Smashing day, lovely clear skies,electronic over dependance clearly proven, feet in great shape. That effort to do 4 miles a day paid off. started 08:30 finished 15:30 with about 1 hour breaks. 17.5 miles mostly hard paved/tarmac.
Will finish this trail in April.