spryng | Hadrian's Wall, Day Two: 13.18 miles

Our second day (Tuesday) started with us wandering down to the offered breakfast, finding that it was all cereal and plastic-wrapped croissants (really? ew) with nary a fruit or anything substantial in sight, then wandering back down the road to the grocery store and stocking up. I had salmon for breakfast, because salmon is really freaking cheap for some crazy reason. Also, they have ready-to-eat packages of shrimp in excess. I was in seafood heaven.

We bought snacks for the road and then checked out without any additional dawdling, since we had a good 13 mile walk ahead of us. Packs substantially heavier with all the water we were now carrying, we started walking, getting pretty excited about our first full day. On day two we're going to get our first glimpse of the Wall and really leave the city behind.

But not immediately. We amble through suburbia until we find the walk again, then continue along a path similar to the day before, with grasses and weeds overgrown on its edges, a sprinkling of locals on brief walks, and towns not far out of view.

We come back to the river (that Tyne for which Newcastle upon Tyne is named) and spot the above pub, then the path begins to change.

Behind: the suburbs and city. Ahead: trees and undulating, unadorned hills. We're finally leaving the city behind.

There are still many other people out on the trail with their dogs and their horses, but slowly the trail narrows and the grasses and flowers rise higher.

That is, until we realize we've missed the path, cross through a farmer's field, and get back on it.

Well. It's still pretty.

Less people now, although that could be a symptom of the increasing clouds and the intermittent drops of rain. We pull on our raincoats and increase our pace, hoping to get to our next stop - with the promise of tea - before it all out rains.

We don't, of course.

The town we're heading for - Heddon on Wall - is at the top of a hill and soon we're trucking straight up a rocky, muddy path, rain pattering on the trees around us. The trees open up and the rain begins to patter on us, but we can see houses just ahead, and lo - a sign from above. Or, well, a sign to our left advertising a tea shop just around the corner.

We trod in, damp and dripping and tired, and the shop owner clucked at us and told us we looked like we needed a cuppa. We agreed. And had a cuppa. And thus Lady had her first English tea after hiking up a horrible hill through the rain and cold and she was suitably impressed.

We sat for quite a bit, letting our aching feet and thighs rest, then headed back on our way. Our next stop was relatively close, seeing as how the Wall Heddon was on happened to be the Wall we were walking.

We hit up the teensy local library for their bathrooms on the way out (made ever-so-awkward by it being so small and our real goal being so obviously not books [but you never ever pass up an opportunity like that on a long walk]), then followed what is aptly named Military Road west. Aptly, because it mostly runs along top where the Wall used to be.

But we didn't have to walk on it for too long. Soon we were passing through a kissing gate and reading a sign that warned us it was lambing season, then looking out across the grass -

- and sure enough, sheep! We were truly in the countryside now. The walk quickly became a game of crossing the field without stepping on all the sheep shit, finding the arrow onwards and the way through, and then the next gate or ladder.

As well as random forts - or the places where random forts once were - now entirely covered by dirt and grass and field. The sign pretty much said: "and look! you can still see the bump!" We gazed out across said lump of grass and were duly unimpressed.

We begin the part of the walk where we're mostly passing through fields. Lots and lots of fields. It's still gorgeous and kind of mind-blowing that so many farmers would let a pedestrian path cross through their land, amongst their livestock and crops. That would never happen in the states. It's just such a completely different mindset here.

I'm still not entirely certain what's going on here. It appears to be a camera and it appears to be indicating a scenic view, however there was nothing particularly special about the area - it was just more fields.

Of course, then there was this.

While we were still deep in the planning stages of the trip, I was on the lookout for some decent hiking pants. I wanted something loose and comfy and practical and preferably convertible from pants to shorts. But I found nothing. Even the convertibles were weirdly tight in the thighs and everything else was just weird fitting. So I said fuck it, I wear skirts 90% of the time anyway, I can wear a skirt hiking. So I did. And it worked out amazingly well. The skirt I wore had pockets and dried super fast and never stank and - best of all - was super convenient for those times where the next indoor bathroom was hours away. ;)