h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello

Great article - I walked Hadrian's Wall this year (plus the extra bit from Tynemouth and Southshields to Newcastle) and reading this brought back memories (but fortunately not the blisters).

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I am pleased you liked it thanks

Walking Hadrian's Wall was good - very tiring and a bit surreal in places, but the scenery was spectacular. There were places were we looked back on the horizon and every hill we could see we thought "I climbed up that one, and that one, and that one" for as far as we could see. There were also moments when my legs just refused to move and I couldn't stand up, which was quite embarrassing.

We also camped on the lawn of a minor stately home, whose owners thought it would be very spiffing fun to turn one of the spare barns into a bunkhouse and let people camp around about, what! We had breakfast in their dining room, round a 16 seater long table in a room whose walls were covered with paintings of all the family and every surface contained old nick knacks such as stuffed birds, ornamental china, nice clocks etc. or copies of "Field Magazine", with delightful articles on what breed of gun dog to go for, whilst very posh aristocratic people kept waiting on us hand and foot, asking if we wanted more toast. That was quite an experience.

Walking through Newcastle city centre on a Saturday night when they were playing (and losing) at home to Chelsea was also an experience, but not quite so pleasant a one. It had a very oppressive atmosphere, and Ian swears he saw someone being stabbed. We certainly saw a lot of police and ambulances. Walking along the Tyne for 15 miles we saw thousands of burnt out motorbikes, shopping trolleys, traffic cones scooters and bicycles dumped in the river, and every life ring along the river side had either been vandalised or stolen (except for one in a very posh area). Basically if you're drowning in the Tyne you've got no chance of rescue, although finding a bit of actual river that isn't cluttered with shopping trolleys and traffic cones large enough to drown in would be quite an achievement.

Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend the walk to anyone interested in walking or Roman forts.

Good article too!

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