Hadrian Wall Path — Day 7
Portgate to Heddon-on-the-Wall, 16km (actual: 17km)
After a break on the trail for one day for a day trip to Edinburgh, we were back on the trail for segment #7 that ends just west of Newcastle. After a rainless walk so far, we were ready and equipped for our first rainy day on the trail. It wasn’t exactly raining when we started, but rather foggy and misty with 15 degrees Celsius. This actually made the walk easier and fun. We made our first stop at 6km at the Vallum Farm’s Café Aroma, where we had coffee and a variety of really good scones (jalapeno and feta, cherry and almond). Highly recommended. Just five minutes from the Vallum Farm we stopped at the Robin Hood Inn to get our passports stamped. This is the sixth stamps out of seven stamps on the passport. The last one will be at the end of the walk.
From there the HWP continues next to the road almost the entire time, and we saw some amazing flower beds along the way (see photos), and passed two water reservoirs. The fog and the mist were gone, replaced with some sun and clouds, and we even started to take clothing layers off. At the 13km mark we took another break, this time just picnicking on the path itself.
It was then, with less of a kilometer to get to Heddon-on-the-Wall that it started raining, initially a drizzle, then a real rain, and then it rained cats and dogs, and some people claim it even hailed. We were lucky to be close enough to the end of the walk for the day and to the Three Tuns pub in Heddon-on-the-Wall where we took shelter, and beer and food.
After some mishap with the bus driver, we got to the Great North Hotel in Newcastle around 17:00.
By now we have walked 110km on the HWP.
