Day 5 A day of challenge and satisfaction

Reached the highest point on the wall….”no pain no gain” 🙂

Our day started out from a lovely B&B, The Hill on the Wall.

The interesting thing about this Inn is that it was constructed in the late 14th Century with 4 foot thick walls. This was required by law due to the fact that the structure was located within 10 miles of the Scottish border and thus has to be able to defend itself from “reavers” or raiders from Scotland. Back in that time “reaving” was something of a business model in the border land.

Leaving the Inn we continued to head east through Gilsland along the wall. We shortly came upon the ruins of a castle built in the late 12th century Thirwald Castle.

The night before had been very rainy and windy. Heavy rain with 20 mph winds gusting to 40. It was nasty and concerning given that we would be crossing the highest point of the wall today and thus be completely exposed to the elements. In addition, the surface we would be hiking was not the best.

I feel three times, but fortunately I land on my pack each time, due to the slick surfaces from the constant squalls the night before.

But the views were spectacular:

The best I can describe it is verdant desolation.

Then we started into the crags

Unfortunately I didn’t get shots of the steepest parts as the climbs became so relentless and the walking on the uneven rocky surfaces so demanding that after a point it was simply one foot in front of the other.

But we persevered and made it to the top.

The video I made did not record but I did one this morning from a point slightly lower. The view is accurate imagine roughly half again as much wind at least sustained 30mph with higher gusts

The photo of our group was taken by a young couple celebrating their wedding anniversary yesterday. For that matter, so was I yesterday was my twelfth anniversary married to my best friend, love and partner Kay who allows me to go off flat hatting on these adventures. Love you honey! Another cute thing that happened today was a young, newly married, German couple who passed us and who would stop and give each other a little kiss at each kissing gate 🙂

A few more pics from today. Tomorrow Roman history