Original posts 3rd June 2014. 

Well we did it! Chris and I finished our 84 mile Hadrian’s Wall challenge on Saturday 31 May 2014 around 1630 hours at Bowness-on-Solway.  The final leg from Carlisle was listed as 14.5 miles but on our app it was more like 16 miles. We headed straight to the only pub in the village for a celebratory pint!  Very happy to be finished 🙂

We had trained for 4 months for this challenge but it was tougher than we had imagined, particularly the effect on our feet.  That’s not to say the training was a waste of time, far from it. The terrain across the walk is so varied ranging from tarmac to mud (and we mean deep mud!).   The weather could have been worse but it also could have been better – particularly in the hilly middle sections.

Despite the rain, the middle section which we tackled on days 3 and 4 of our challenge, was absolutely stunning to the point that a return visit might be on the cards.  Returning as tourists of course 🙂

Could we have done it quicker?  Chris and I disagree on this one but my personal view is we could have condensed it into 5 days by taking some risks. That said, I take my hat off to anyone whatever age or physical condition who does this in less than 6 days.

As a reminder, you can view the blogs for Days 1 to 6 of our walk as follows:

Day 1 – Wallsend to Heddon-on-the-Wall

Day 2 – Heddon-on-the-Wall to Chollerford

Day 3 – Chollerford to Steel Rigg 

Day 4 – Steel Rigg to Lanercost 

Day 5 – Lanercost to Carlisle 

Day 6 – Carlisle to Bowness-on-Solway 

You can see some of the thinking below in the next section.