Jeri’s Steps: 38,414
Miles walked: 15.4
Elevation: 1,735
Pints: none (wine)
Churches: none
Stiles: 17
Benches: 1

Our last mile on Hadrian’s wall…..

We had an early breakfast at the Bowes Hotel in Bardon Mill. According to our chatty waitress, the pub was remodeled about 4 years ago and as a result this little  place at the crossroads was hopping!  After a short taxi ride we rejoined the Way at Peel and repeated our rollercoaster walk for a couple of miles. We then arrived at the iconic Sycamore Gap (not named as such on the OS map).  No matter how many times we had seen the pictures or videos, the sight of a lone tree straddling the Wall in a natural gap was magical. Less than a mile later we turned north, said goodbye to the Wall, and struck out across the moor.  Although we saw some walkers in the morning, once we left Hadrian’s Wall we only saw one other and he turned out to be an ‘end to ender’ who had started at John O’ Groats more than 500 miles to the north.  We’d thought we had left the bogs behind us but Ridley Common held a few (wet) surprises. As we skirted the edges of Wark Forest we found the track easy but the footpaths boggy as well. Lunch was taken on a stile at the edge of the forest with not a bench in sight.  Soon we were in sheep farming country and passed by the unfortunately named Shitlington Hall, and climbed Shitlington Crags to the relay station. This was the last of today’s climbs and soon Bellingham (pronounced Bellinjam) was in sight in the valley below.