Sunday 21 October 2012

Hadrians wall walk DAY 2.

DAY 2.

"someone has stolen the bloody Robin Hood stamp, I bet it was that bastard in the green hat! Well that wouldn't be ironic would it!"

Woke up early needed a piss soooo bad and my leg's weren't the only thing that was stiff as I climbed out of my sleeping bag, morning glory was upon me so I was glad of the darkness although I did nearly trip over Sluggie's cot bed. Good job I didn't fall onto him, that wouldn't have been awkward at all!!! ("Kell your torch is digging into me..........!", "my torch is in my Bergen Sluggie!") I stepped out of the tent and crunched my way over to the toilet block, oh boy it was cold this morning and the stars were still glinting at me less brightly now and it wouldn't be long before they made way for the sun and hopefully a really good walking day. A little less than an hour later and the sun was rising to reveal the most stunning view of the the dawn lit mist rolling over the hill's we had already walked the day before. The conversation was a little muted over breakfast (porridge THEN fry up, still no horse cake!), I think there was a fair amount of trepidation about the coming days after what had been the longest day of our lives yesterday and a few murmurs of "I cant walk another 20 miles today!" And "are my feet supposed to look like this?" Mixed with "who's fucking idea was this? WANKER!" The realisation that this was not going to be easy by anyone's standards was kicking in and after breakfast was eaten and water re-plenned we gather outside for a group "bonding" shot and moral was handed out to those who needed it in the shape of me looking like a complete twat in my new head band!

With sore leg's and quivering bottom lip's we headed out for day 2 of walking it wasn't long before we arrived at our second Stamping station which was The Robin Hood pub just a couple of miles down the road just after the Scooby Doo bridge, NO REALLY! (after seeing the Scooby Doo bridge I was more than a little worried that the wicker man might make an appearance!) When we opened the little wooden box by the entrance we saw that the stamp was missing brilliant I said "someone has stolen the bloody Robin Hood stamp, I bet it was that bastard in the green hat! Well that wouldn't be ironic would it!"


 Let me explain the "bastard in the green hat", on the first day we met with a guy on his own who was walking the same walk as us but carrying all his kit (tent, sleeping bag, axes, rohypnol etc) with him. He was a bit suspect to say the least and we would encounter him on several occasions on our adventure.The one distinguishing thing about him was his scruffy green woolly hat. we concluded after the third day that he was actually murdering other walkers on the Hadrians wall path, either that or he was a werewolf. That thought stayed with me as I don't like werewolves very much (not that fell stalking murderers are much better).


Glad we cleared that up, moving on!!

Luckily the land lady of the pub showed up just as we were all about to commit suicide faced with being"one stamp short of a full set" (yes I know, just like me!).She said it had happened before so she kindly signed our stamp points and said that it would count as a stamp. I didn't want the stamp point to left empty so decided to put my finger print onto it(another reference to the cells). 






We cracked on and found ourselves moving into deeper farm land and an ever increasing number of styles. I every time I crossed a style I couldn't help but chuckle to myself whilst quietly singing "Gangnam style" to myself. It's like an instant happy moment, even now I cant help but sing it!! we were seeing more and more of "the wall" too which still had it's novelty at this point! We were entering real "HADRIANS WALLLLL COUNTRYYYYYYY"! or so the sign said!















after a few more miles we took a proper break and it became obvious that there were some sore feet around. I had for the most part avoided any serious blisters at this point but after the previous day I'm not surprised there were some potential man downs through foot related injury. Sara at this point was in some pain and the compede's(not sure whether that is spelled right but the spell checker gave me the word "commodes" which I don't think would have been an appropriate alternative, not until later that day anyway!) didn't seem to be working but she patched up as well as possible and even went bare back FOOT! I meant bare foot! and at the lunch RV picked up her sandals which was enough to give her feet a little room to breath (no, I refuse to make a smelly feet joke right now. I will however tell you that Sam and myself had an encounter with one of her sandals the next day). It was just before the lunch RV that we cut through a beautiful Forrest it really was stunning. For some reason I became obsessed with taking pictures of mushrooms when my photographer side kicked in and was happy to see Sam and Sophie join in when I started to sing the "Badger Badger Badger Badger" song (badger song here).


  It was a nice change to amble through the woods for a while. Easier on the feet as well as the eye's. It also indicated that lunch was just round the corner. Did i mention lunch again? HANK MARVIN!!!!!



 Finally we reached lunch RV on the entrance to a junction on a relatively quiet road, soup and sandwiches was the order of the day which was well received by everyone. of course there was a catch and I was made to sing for my sandwich just handy that Iain had brought his travel guitar along (what a co-incidence)!
song played and dinner earned we all sat down and rested over lunch. before we were ready to set off again we were disturbed by an angry goth in a small red car who was snarling and swearing at us all because we were blocking his parking space while he waited for his kid to be dropped off, one word spring's to mind WANKER! Fully refreshed we set off again and the pace was pushed a little to make sure we made camp 2 before night fall (what with the werewolf being around here somewhere!) this is really the first time I got to properly chat with Sam and Sophie (when they didn't have their tongues stuffed in each others mouth's) this leg of day 2 was also the first time I uttered one of the "sheep reference's" which came from the joke "what'a the scouse version of silence of the lambs? SHUT UP EWES!" This then led to endless "EWES" jokes and shouts at the sheep which made Sophie wet her self every time. "what are ewes lookin at?"  We were starting to split into two groups again but to be honest i really needed to drop the kids off at the pool (needed a shit) and we weren't that far off camp 2 so we contacted the group behind and to check they were ok with us pushing on. We passed a few more bit's of the wall took some photo's (Quickly) then i did a "duck walk" the rest of the way to the camp. (bum cheeks clenched we rolled into camp 2 and after a good muck out we stretched off and waited for the second group to come in.











The day wasn't quite done yet we decided to give some of the team a head start some of the fitter guy's (Drew,Dave and Ant) marched on for 3 miles up 1 hell of a hill. myself and Sam walked with them for a while before cutting off to get the stamp from Chesters fort. then it was back to camp again for tea and medals.

MILES WALKED 11.63 (tbc)


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