ENGLAND - HADRIAN'S WALL July 2022
Our Carlisle Hub
Well-Sited, Again
The Disneyland-like quality of both of our Lake District venues, Keswick and Windermere, were even more marked when our next stop landed us in Carlisle to begin walking along Hadrian’s Wall. Our Carlisle neighborhood was a little too reminiscent of our first English city in early May, Swindon, with too many vacant store fronts on the pedestrian mall. The Tesco Supercenter market was little more than a standard Tesco and had us immediately heading to the competition to finish our food shopping.
Carlisle’s ambiance was cringe-worthy, but not particularly consequential for us. Bill had once again positioned us in a quiet, comfortable apartment close to the bus stand, train station, and food markets. We had what we needed and that was good enough.
Certainty
One of our deep and lasting lessons learned from the pandemic was the profound negative effect uncertainty has on one’s sense of wellbeing. We were only weeks into the thick of early pandemic terror when I set a stringent policy of creating certainty around as many issues as possible, even if the certainty only proved valid for hours. It worked: we both successfully reined-in our particular propensities for anxiety and sailed through the worst years of the chaos in relative calm.
Our Carlisle Hub
Well-Sited, Again
The Disneyland-like quality of both of our Lake District venues, Keswick and Windermere, were even more marked when our next stop landed us in Carlisle to begin walking along Hadrian’s Wall. Our Carlisle neighborhood was a little too reminiscent of our first English city in early May, Swindon, with too many vacant store fronts on the pedestrian mall. The Tesco Supercenter market was little more than a standard Tesco and had us immediately heading to the competition to finish our food shopping.
Carlisle’s ambiance was cringe-worthy, but not particularly consequential for us. Bill had once again positioned us in a quiet, comfortable apartment close to the bus stand, train station, and food markets. We had what we needed and that was good enough.
Certainty
One of our deep and lasting lessons learned from the pandemic was the profound negative effect uncertainty has on one’s sense of wellbeing. We were only weeks into the thick of early pandemic terror when I set a stringent policy of creating certainty around as many issues as possible, even if the certainty only proved valid for hours. It worked: we both successfully reined-in our particular propensities for anxiety and sailed through the worst years of the chaos in relative calm.
We knew that there was something that we didn’t understand about heating hot water in England, but this was a stunning bit of engineering at Carlisle.
This Carlisle water tank was on the small side, only heated to 120°F (50° C) and looked like an entry into a spaceship contest in the 1950’s magazine “Popular Mechanics”, but its one-off monitor added absolute certainty to shower time each night. The gauge allowed us to both have a full tank of hot water available in the least amount of time. The degradation of the hot water availability due to hand washing dishes or clothes and running the clothes washer, was easy to monitor. Instantly, we could see how cool the water was after drawing some water and know when it had fully recovered. Guaranteeing us both hot showers every evening in the shortest possible turnaround time with our long hiking days compressing our evenings, was huge.
A few days into our stay, the spaceship imagery ceased to be amusing when the temperature on the gauge in Celsius almost doubled, hovering a few degrees below boiling, and one of the pipes began leaking a little water on to the floor. We stopped in our tracks, literally interrupting our departure, fearing it might blow-up.
Fortunately, the property manager, the property owner, and the electrician were very responsive to our alarms and the problem was “sorted” in 2 hours. The stuck relay was unstuck, but we were more guarded around our multi-tubed bedroom buddy for the remainder of our stay. The good news from the uproar was that the water heated to 63°C instead of 50°, giving us hotter water to work with each evening.
Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail
Other People’s Stories
Face-to-face engagements with strangers quickly began defining our time on the on the Path, beginning on the first day. Their stories and sentiments soon became more compelling to us than those of the ancient Romans in England and their great wall.
On Day 1 on the Hadrian Wall Path National Trail, we were quite touched by the welcoming gesture of villagers we never saw. They prominently displayed the only sign we’d ever seen actively inviting us to picnic in their grassy area. We later regretted not stopping for what would have been the too-early lunch break because it was the last decent opportunity that day to picnic.
After literally having had ticks crawling over us when on the English Coast Path in prior years when standing, we are loathed to sit in grasses that could harbor ticks. So, when the best prospect little village at our appointed lunchtime didn’t deliver a bench or suitable rock wall to safely elevate us, we plopped down on a curb about 2” above the street and called it “good enough.” Unglamorous, it worked, but the designated picnic area would have been so much more comfortable and dignified.
We were confronted with an equally dismal picnicking situation the next day at an even smaller village where we hoped for a lunchtime oasis away from the pastures. We turned a corner, spotted a grassy area about a block away, and headed for it expecting to find a park. Two local men chatting together politely asked where we were going and why and they quickly explained that our sighting wouldn’t deliver. After some friendly banter, we and one man headed back towards the main road and then he paused, offering to let us eat in his yard. We jumped at the generous invitation.
Bypassing this welcomeing picnic area was a mistake (Kirkandrews-on-Eden).
We smiled for hours afterwards from the chance fun created by our search for a picnic spot. He too was clearly amused by the encounter because we noticed him slyly taking our photo while on his property.
Two days we stopped to chat with Brits Sue and Gail who were walking in the opposite direction along the Wall. We first encountered them just before securing our commando’s hospitality and then at the end of our following walking day. We learned about Sue’s most fantastic, guided backpacking trip in Chile and we highly recommended our favorite village in the Dolomites for her next big adventure.
Before encountering Gail and Sue for a 2nd time, we met James and Ellie at the last section of actual Wall at the west end of the the path, which was our first encounter with it. They were making walking the Wall a moving party for themselves, complete with props. Ellie held a Roman banner against the Wall for their photo op and there were gold paper garlands like Romans wore hanging out of their packs. We granted their request to make the several second video to share with their friends of them saying “Goodbye” to the Wall. We probably chatted with them for half an hour, especially about their nation’s politics and the ousting of Boris Johnson.
The next day, when taking what was becoming a daily taxi ride to get to the path after using a bus from Carlisle to Brampton, our Scottish cabbie, Brandon, was overflowing with chit-chat. He talked about the international news channel, Al Jazeera, of which I am also a fan, and Biden’s current visit to Saudi Arabia. It didn’t take long until he was talking about his recent bout with prostate cancer and how his diagnosis was made just after the hospitals re-opened in 2021 to treat people like him. He shared the opinion that more people died in 2020 from untreated cancer in England than from covid. We loved his bubbly energy over a range of topics at the start of our day.
It was a good thing that our last day of hiking from Carlisle was planned as a short one because Brandon wasn’t the last of our locals in the mood to chat. One helpful man gardening was eager to lecture us about the suddenly hot weather coming in a couple of days, cautioning us to drink lots of water, to sip it slowly, and not to do those big hills ahead of us in the heat. He finally backed down with his numerous admonitions when I mentioned hiking into the Grand Canyon and in the desert were among our favorite activities at home. We appreciated his concern for us and noted that he likely loved the parade of ready visitors that walked along his backyard fence everyday.
We then chatted with Helena, a young solo backpacker going our way who shared that she was prone to getting lost. She was using a small paperback guidebook, though most of the British walkers literally dangle large paper maps in plastic sheaths around their necks, some of whom also talked about getting lost. I marketed Bill’s excellent GPS skills and invited Helena to keep us in sight if she wanted to stay on the route. She was on a mission and whereas we were strolling, so we didn’t see her again that day.
Outdoor dining on the commando’s lawn.
Andy admitted he was bored doing laps in his field to pick-up bails of hay and lingered for quite some time. We chattered long enough that I sprung a burning question on him, which was “What is the story behind the ugliest sheep we’d ever seen?” When I said that at first, we thought it was a hog, he immediately searched “Beltex” on his phone and displayed a photo of the ugly cuss we’d stared at. He proceeded to explain that his normal-looking, laid-back sheep required no care, produced a lot of wool, but not a lot of meat whereas the Beltex had to be brought indoors for the winter, produced a lot of meat, but not much wool. Who knew?? But now we did.
We finally thought we could shift our focus from socializing to finding the day’s lunch spot when we encountered 2 local men intent on talking. They were “collecting” US states and were up to 9 different states represented on the track. We heard a story about the guy from Seattle and the matriarch from Alabama who had done the Santiago de Compostela in Spain and the 15 relatives she currently had in tow on the Wall. We declined their offer to learn how to avoid going up the one big hill on our day’s route. Fortunately, 2 other men showed up, allowing us to excuse ourselves and to be on our way. We had an easy day planned, but we still had an infrequent bus to catch in the mid-afternoon.
On another day, we encountered a local, Ian, who walked the Wall 3 to 4 times a month. Even though he was speedier than us, he happily offered to take photos of other walkers, and we had lunch with him later in the day.
Themes Emerged
Past & Present
“Be open to the possibilities of life” were wise words spoken to us decades ago, words that both serve as forward-looking guidance and to understand our recent experiences. In hindsight, that described our mode when on Hadrian’s Wall where we had an unusual amount of conversation time with locals and Wall walkers. Both one-off topics and commonly held beliefs arose in the lively banter. The highlights of my time on the Wall were not revisiting the familiar and fascinating ancient Roman history but hearing what was on the minds of others.
Despair
Sadly, despair about the future was right there for almost all the people with whom we chatted, and that was before the record-breaking heat wave hit. The war in Ukraine; flaming failures of recent former leaders in the US, England, and Sri Lanka; undeniable global warming; supply chain shortages; skyrocketing energy costs; disruptions due to labor shortages; inflation; Brexit; covid; to name a few, were roiling sources of trauma that all shared.
I’d been convinced that our near panic about climate change effects on the weather this year and anticipated in the next couple of years, was a function of our old age but the ‘youngsters’ James and Ellie confirmed that they shared our despair. They too were horrified and had a sense of impending doom with the climate and state of affairs in general. We were happier thinking that it was a generational issue, but they dispelled that, saying that they were now relying on the 20-year-olds for what they recognized should have been their youthful optimism.
Wildly enthusiastic James & Ellie packed Roman props for their Hadrian’s Wall adventure.
Military Careers
With the current war in Ukraine always on our minds, it was all the more poignant to listen to two 60-ish English men reference their military service. For one, it was his recent diagnosis of PTSD that stopped me in my tracks, even though he’d been out of the military for decades and retired from subsequent police service a decade ago. Like many deep emotional wounds, apparently PTSD often gets worse instead of better with the passage of time if not named and treated. A few days later, we saw a news story regarding how readily people dismiss their PTSD, even when they are beginning to have suicidal thoughts, which added more poignancy to his casual reference to his new diagnosis.
The commando that let us lunch in his yard got starry-eyed with reminiscing about Reagan having been the right man for the times because of the much-appreciated arms the US sent to Britain during the Falklands war with Argentina. I was quite startled to listen to his passionate description of the superiority of the US weapons to British models with a similar design. In his mind, they would not have won the war without that specific help. It was odd to juxtapose his earnestness and passion about the weaponry with our breezier summary of the effects of Reagan’s presidency on us, which was it was terrible for the environment but a major contributor to our early retirement because of the deep tax cuts when our household income was rising. Talk about worlds apart even though we were close in age.
Politics
I was delighted, then horrified, when our lunch guest, Ian, brought up Trump’s bleach remedy for covid. The idiocy of Trump’s enthusiasm for ingesting or injecting bleach delighted my dark side for validating what a fool I think he is, and I always loved being reminded of that hilarious and horrifying comment. But moments later, my glee was dashed. Trump’s bleach home remedy was apparently the last straw for Ian’s faith in America on the world stage, which made me gasp. Having fun with a lively exchange was my priority, so I quickly and laughingly quipped that we retaliated against their bad thoughts about Americans from Trump’s bleach comment by giving them Boris Johnson. The historical timeline wasn’t accurate, but the humor landed well enough with our lunch mate.
The foundations of Hadrian’s Wall & a milecastle.
Thirty-something James lamented Boris’ downfall, defending him with “but he has some very good traits.” I’d been paying attention to the British news this summer and knew that getting elected was one of Boris’ most reliable skills and that, like Trump, he was an unapologetic narcissist and serial liar.
The trail-side conversation didn’t give James much time to elaborate on his position, but we later chuckled about all the bad to evil people in the world that have some good traits. A few good traits aren’t enough by our standards. In these trying times, integrity is what we measure people by and Boris came up incredibly short on that, our key criteria, and we were glad he was out. Boris also supported Brexit and we were hard and fast “Remainers.” Boris barely qualifies as a strongman, but we wanted to see this cycle of strongmen come to an end and we hoped that sending him packing would contribute to favorable momentum in the world.
Joy
Fellow Wall-walker Helena was surprisingly excited to see us when we encountered her for a 2nd time on the Path, which was in her last 1-2 miles on Hadrian’s Wall. I was perplexed as to why the 2nd chance encounter could be so meaningful to her but took her at her word after she enthusiastically repeated her glee several times. Perhaps it was too little companionship for her 6 days of walking alone or maybe having witnesses to the completion of her goal gave her joy, but those explanations didn’t quite make sense to me. No matter: she was eager to talk and talk we did.
We told her a bit about our 20-year travel history, which included numerous visits to Graz, Austria, where she is an English literature major, and just how much walking we do in a year. She was eager to know if walking the Wall met our expectations like it had hers. We marveled at her linguistic skills that didn’t have a hint of Germanic accent; we’d been certain she was a Brit. Helena didn’t seem burdened by the fretting the rest of us were doing about the times and was totally engaged in the moment.
Health Challenges
The next day, a US or Canadian woman spilled her guts about her disappointing big toe immobility and recent toe surgery when I commented on her Altra shoes, our favorite brand. She was all ears when I demonstrated a better way to lace her Altra’s to favor her ailing toe on descents and gave her our website link to the many pieces I’d written about feet and footwear.
Perhaps thirty years younger than us, she was wide-eyed after shifting from reading a storyboard about the ruins of the huge Roman fort in front of us to learn about my optimism for restoring her feet. And she was aghast that I had just effortlessly descended the rocky, steep, slope behind us in the sandals I’d worn daily on the English trails for the better part of the last 3 months (I was saving my new Altras for the Alps.). Near and dear to my heart is giving women hope that they can overcome their body issues to remain athletic at whatever level they choose, and feet and knees are the most frequent obstacles, issues I know well.
We didn’t realize that Helena was Austrian because her English was superb.
Being Open
Who would have guessed that the Hadrian’s Wall venue would be our big socializing event for our 3 months in England? We’d had a delightful, planned, rendezvous in Bristol with our longtime friends Des and Penny, and then, had about 1 long conversation with 1 person on each of our 1st three venues.
We’d chatted with Louise, a canal lock warden, on the Thames during our lunch break at her lock. Poor Louise was very fun but not a good liar as revealed when she clumsily evaded our questions once we learned that she had been in the military and that her husband was currently in the military. We seemingly knew too much about the nearby US base, Fairfield, and she had to dance around our questions. It didn’t take long to conclude that there was a semi-secret military operation in the US where her husband worked in Blythe, CA several times a year.
In the Cotswolds, our longest conversation was with 3 women from Victoria, BC whom we bumped into twice in one day. It was mainly a ‘comparing notes’ conversation about lodging and learning about their route-finding errors. Bill is highly competent with using his GPS apps and, in contrast to them, our missteps are measured in feet rather than miles.
In the Lake District out of Keswick, we partially descended a fell with Nigel, about our age, who had spent some of his college years at Stanford. We enjoyed our lively chitchat about how times had changed in the US and, as a regular hiker in the fells, he answered some of our burning questions.
And then there was the unexpected bonanza of social connection on Hadrian’s Wall, for seemingly no reason. Go figure, but I couldn’t make sense of it, so we just enjoyed it.
Hexham
Hexham was our 8th and final venue for our 4 hub-and-spoke walking tours in England in 2022. Our apartment there was our nicest yet—the best match with our needs. It was one level above the street and our only unit with cross-ventilation, which was a boon for our brief experience of the historic heat wave. Hexham topped out at about 93° F (33°C) and our apartment's interior temperature stayed below that.
The noisy, tabletop fan aimed at us while in bed aided in sleeping, though it was a restlessness night for both of us. That was Tuesday July 19, the day that London Fire Brigade had its busiest day since WWII, responding to 1100 incidents. It had been a record-breaking 104° (40°C) for London.
Transportation from Hexham to our various starting points on the Wall was problematic, like it had been all summer in England. Bill had expected it to be a snap at Hadrian’s Wall since the AD 122 bus (the year the Wall construction began), ran seasonally to support walkers like us. But financial constraints meant that it no longer operated from Carlisle and on parts of the route closer to Hexham. Volunteers operated a van 2 days a week for a standard fee to fill-in one gap. There was no train service available anywhere near the Wall and we increasingly used cabs and ride services to connect the dots. We were still spending as much as 2 hours for transit in one direction on hiking days.
While at Haltwhistle, we urged Ian to travel to Turkey to see stunning Roman ruins.
Not too surprisingly, the historical hook with Roman history didn’t sink deeply in either of us. An old observation was revived to explain our low level of enthusiasm: “We’ve seen so much.” Museums in England may display a single Roman clay oil lamp found at an excavation site whereas in Cologne, Germany, the Roman museum displays hundreds of them sandwiched between 2 panes of glass, making a large false wall. We found ourselves telling trail mate Ian, who walks the Wall regularly and is writing several books about the Wall or the Romans, that the best Roman finds were in Turkey. In England, we were all respectfully admiring largely what we call “knee-high ruins” whereas in Turkey, we’d walked on huge marble Roman plazas with several-story-high walls towering over us.
Over and over, we reminded ourselves that we came to England because of its exceptional selection of multi-day walks that have public transportation and lodging in striking distance, something that is exceedingly rare anywhere else. We were grateful for the opportunity, England delivered on the promise, and we were pleased that we walked almost everyday for 3 months. England had also stabilized their covid rules in early March, making it a safe gamble for our travel dollar.
We will remember our 14-day interval of walking 115 miles to cover the 75 of the official 83 miles of Hadrian’s Wall more for the people than for the Wall itself. James and Ellie with their Roman paraphernalia, and Helena with her throbbing excitement for the Wall, will remind us of what wasn’t true for us because of our extensive prior travels. We would continue to be touched by the small windows we were allowed to look through on 2 men’s military service, and we’ll hold dear the warmth and enthusiasm that was shared with us as American tourists. It was a treat to have so many conversations our last 2 weeks in England, our last 2 weeks surrounded by English speakers, before concluding our holiday with 5 weeks in more conversationally isolated in Italy.
“Hello, Italy!”
The last 5-plus weeks of our 4-month overseas holiday would end in the Italian Dolomites, our favorite place to be. Bill monitored Italy’s covid rates of infection almost daily for months before and during our trip, comparing it with the US and UK, and Italy’s rate was consistently higher. But the Italian government stuck with its plan announced in April and kept the door open all summer for foreign tourists with the only requirement being wearing masks on public transportation, other than on planes. We felt confident about plunging into a more dangerous region having had 3 months of practice being covid-savvy travelers abroad.
After 3 years away from our favorite hiking venue and 3 years away from our almost brand-new e-bikes with batteries likely degrading from a lack of charging, we were all-in. Bill had planned our typical low-stress itinerary to get to Italy, including 2 nights at Gatwick airport, to abide by our preference for enough time for things to go wrong before international flights and it worked. Our train travel from Hexham to Gatwick airport took 10 hours, not the anticipated 4 hours, arriving after 6 pm the night before the all-day rail strike. Knowing we had an extra day to get to Gatwick before a sunrise flight sustained our resilience on the difficult travel day and we arrived in Verona, Italy on time and with our checked luggage!