World's best long distance walks

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Here's how to use your walking shoes to take you over the horizon - and away to Rome and even Santiago de Compostela. This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs)   

My family is so very close to finishing the Capital Ring - a 70 mile (126km) route circling London. Sometimes I worry about finishing it - we'll end the joy of discovering new bits of London. Highlights include the Brent reservoir used for a long-ago Olympics, the art deco 1930s splendour of Eltham Palace, a peep into the grand schooling of Harrow School and the endless views of London from hills you didn't know existed. Honestly it's like tramping over the seven hills of Rome.

To compensate my loss there are some wonderful long-distance paths around the UK (and nearby) that could perhaps be revisited and allow me to dream up being in another place altogether.

Five best long-distance walks

• Camino de Santiago de Compostela - the route of St James (patron saint's day 25 July). I've met people who have walked this in the sharp winds of April with a baby on their back. I've seen the film with Martin Sheen and son, The Way, and long ago I stayed in the stunning parador (hotel) at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Somewhere in the back of my mind I want to try this 780km journey too, but it's one that will have to wait for the children to leave school. Indeed if you go past the cathedral you can end at Finisterre, which Medievals thought was "the end of the world". More info at this website.
• Walk with the Romans along Hadrian's Wall. We've nearly managed the whole 135km, just a short two, maybe three, day section left between Newcastle and Hexham. The May half term is pencilled in, but we may have to give up on this idea as Nell, 10, is very wary of cows and they will certainly be out in the fields by then. Bulls and all. See a previous entry on this blog here about the moment we reached the end (before quite completing the beginning).
  
• West Highland Way - runs 152km from Glasgow to Fort William uphill. Well, as good as uphill. It's midge heaven and the few chunks I've tried out (along Loch Lomond for instance) are remarkably free of snack shops which makes walking more of a slog. Perhaps this is the one that best echoes Camino de Santiago de Compostela?
  
  
• Coast to Coast - success! Pete and I spent three years popping up and down to the Lake District in order to walk Alfred Wainwright's fabulous 190 mile path (sorry, it has to be miles in respect to AW's memory) from St Bees Head over to Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire (dreamt up in 1973, more info here). I'd never heard of Wainwright when Pete first suggested the idea. Now I am willing to watch reruns of his extremely slow TV programme, just to get back in the zen mood of walking through the Lake District with my eyes mostly on a compass rather than mountain tops...
  
  A tip from the cantankerous AW: "If you must take a companion, take one who is silent."
  
  I was quite upset when an energetic friend and her husband managed to cycle 225km on the C2C (a very similar route) in a weekend - the time it took my lumbering feet seemed to add to the magic of the journey. But if you are less hardy, but still speed-inclined try the 12-20 day holidays run by this group.
  
  
• Across India - isn't this what Gandhi did in some form of anti-British protest involving salt? Have you seen the size of India? 

Over to you
Where have you walked in the UK that makes you think you could be somewhere else in the world?

Hadrian's Wall: the end & haaf fishing

Pete, Nicola, Lola and Nell love to travel but stay off planes to keep their carbon footprint down. Here's how they satisfy their passion for travel

It's 84 miles (135km), was built in six years and the only World Heritage Site to have a long-distance footpath along it. So this is Hadrian's Wall – a 2,000 year old map route from Newcastle's Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway. And as a family we have now managed 59 miles of it stretching from Chollerford (Hexham) over to the edge of the Solway Firth (Carlisle).

There was a tourist perfect end to the walk – a Roman(esque) recreation of an Edwardian viewing point at the Banks, just off the village, which offered a poetic view to Scotland. As we sat and half contemplated our as-good-as-finish of Hadrian's Wall a man walked out with his 18 foot Haaf net to fish the tides for salmon etc. Wading out he looked like Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North on the move. With the silvery light, our soon to be rested aching feet and this snapshot of a 1,000 year old fishing skill (brought here by the Vikings) it was the most atmospheric moment of the whole walk. And that includes meeting men dressed as centurions, the re-enactors at Halsteads Fort and even witnessing the Roman shoe dug out in front of us at Vindolanda.

Living history is not yet going into the supermarket and choosing our food, or for that matter tapping out blog entries. Living history feels like watching a fishermen with a weirdy net or retracing a Roman soldiers' path within earshot of a dual carriageway.

Admittedly I did rather turn the end of our epic journey into a shopping saga by stopping off at the King's Arms, 016973 51426, to buy sew on Hadrian's Wall badges and postcards. Pete can do celebrating fine with just a pint.**

I wanted to find out more about haff fishing but it was luck that we stopped off at the Highland Laddie pub in Glasson as this is were you can find Mark Messenger, highlandladdie@talktalk.net, who'll take you out to fish the age old way for salmon, grilse (young salmon), sea trout, grey mullet, bass and flounder. He's also the secretary of a new haaf fishing association - see more on page 5 of this document about the Solway Firth here, which explains why haaf fishing is endangered now it can only be practiced between 10am-10pm.

There's even a festival - the Haafest salmon and beer festival from 5-6 September 2009. Equipment is provided (you wear your own waterproof jacket) including the haafnet and waders, though you need to be fit enough to stand in cold water for a couple of hours. Or just enjoy Jennings beer and local bands.


Be tempted when you find out that “haaf net fishing is one of the best excuses there is to stand right in the middle of one of the last wildernesses in the British Isles and explore the magnetism of the Solway Firth.” You could even see seals and porpoises and of course the many migratory wading birds that stuff themselves on the rich tidal waters and marsh land.

**Useful guide for Hadrian's Wall is Hadrian's Wall Path by Anthony Burton (Aurum, £12.99) which makes the route incredibly clear though fails to do justice to the many contrasts of the walk, or name all the pubs and which stock the best ales.

Above the birds

Extraordinary moment just below Turret 43a on Hadrians Wall on the last day of July - and the sunniest day we've had over the past eight weeks. Lola, Nell and I had stopped for jaffa cakes at the top of Cockmount Hill as it gave us a bird's eye view of the valley to the south and let the sun sink into our limbs. We were nearly at the end of our longest walk on the wall - 6.6miles over endless ups and downs and a lot of chat about the antics of Harry Potter, and what the Romans have ever done for us...

As we relaxed Nell spotted a bird hovering below us, then diving down into the grass, then soaring back up again and repeating this. It's back was a golden brown and the markings on its tail were so clear it was easy to later look it up and find out that it was a female kite. She hovered close enough to us for us to see how her wings moved and because of the sheer drop off this hill we were always above her. It was spellbinding to watch not least because she seemed quite uninterested in our party, and for some time also ignored the train of nine young overloaded teenage backpackers snailing there way up the hill.

Our kite only flew off when one poor girl puffed at us "I'm going to die". She was revived enough by her friends launching into an irritating chorus of "If you're happy and you know it..." to set her draw into a look that suggested she might kill them first. But in our eerie we were uterly happy and all of us clapped our hands encouraging the teenagers to keep going with the tempting fact that there was some downhill soon, and only three miles away was a loo.

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Pete


Being laid low with cellulitus (thankfully lessening with antibiotics) while the others walk Hadrian's Wall has given me the chance to take the bus to the magnificent Roman forts of Housesteads, Chesters and Vindolanda (so named because of the Romans' love for the native Brits' vindaloos). And I might have been better off with the Romans, having viewed the hospital at Housesteads. Firstly they wore sandals which encouraged air circulation and would have countered my athelete's foot. Plus they had proper hospitals with Greek surgeons, herb beds for alternative remedies and honey to stop infection seeping into wounds. It all sounds like Stoke Newington.

And who said Roman history was boring? Get this, they loved daubing great big willies wherever they went. There's a phallus carved into the Wall at Birdoswald (a comment on the Scots or a statement that a big man builds a big wall?), a pottery penis on display at the Vindolanda Museum and a willie carved into the floor of the headquarters at Chesters. Scholars tend to say these are fertility symbols or good luck charms; but having read the famous Vindolanda tablets where ordinary Romans request beer and the details of any good local inns, my conclusion is that they were simply early readers of Loaded.

Shoes in the mud

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

Good progress along the wall despite our depleted party. Lola, Nell and I have now spent three days in a row pounding westwards from Chesters and have today done a fabulous, albeit short stretch, from Housesteads to Vindolanda. This bit goes up and down so the mileage doubles, crosses a lough we feel sure inspired the King Arthur legend, and goes through wonderful Sycamore Gap (a spot every fan of the movie of Robin Hood the Prince of Thieves will know). I really enjoyed the turf-topped sections of the wall covered in waving grasses, mats of purple thyme and lady's bed straw and beyond that views to die for.

It was also the best bit though I grouchily found that there were rather too many walkers sharing the route with us (ie, about 50 in total walking in both directions, which I suppose is less than the number I see or push past on the way to school when we are back in London...)

And then we veered off the wall to Vindolanda, not sure of what we'd find, and found absolute treasure. Here an archaeological dig is ongoing and while we were there the team pulled out a leather sandal (about size six and therefore a man's). Pete saw it come out; we saw it popped into a plastic bag for recording.

This is also the place where the anaerobic soil conditions (ie, starved of oxygen) have led to the most amazing discoveries: the letters and notes of daily life. It was here that they dug up a birthday party invitation from a lady (not just an obvious sign that Roman women were at the forts - don't tell Hadrian - but also that this Roman woman could write very elegantly.

Vindolanda is a brilliant place, and if you don't want to be a tourist here you can always come as an archaeological volunteer. From our brief visit it is clear that both Pete and Lola are very tempted, with Lola actually begging to learn Latin (they have fabulous primers there including Minimous (aka Minny Mouse) and Harry Potter in Latin. Nell was content with just being an ice cream taster

Got maps and gladiatus

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

Thanks to the National Trail Guide of Hadrian’s Wall Path the fit members of the Baird-May legion (ie, not Pete) are walking east to west (keeps the sun and possibly wind behind you though the rain is intermittent) along Hadrian’s Wall. The girls picked up short swords known as gladiatus after being inspired by the amazing remains at Chesters – a cavalry fort which is now run by English Heritage but very appropriately hemmed in by a stud farm. To keep in the Roman mood Nell and I chose a Roman Adventure (one of the Oxford Reading Tree titles or for those more familiar with these books, the one where Chip and Biff take pizza and banner advertising to the Romans) for her to read out to me while waiting for the bus which is named as well as any pub quiz team – AD122 (ie, the year the wall was “born”).

At first we were studying our big walk route closely, but there’s no need. Hadrian’s Wall path runs beside this World Heritage site and whenever the wall remains disappear (at times you can see its course for miles in the distance), and the southern vallum (ditch) or northern ditch has collapsed there are well way-marked with finger posts. Now we look at the views, look out for Roman legions, runners, gladiators and the forts which pop up ruinously fast in this region – there’s Chesters, Housesteads, Once Brewed, Vindolanda, etc. Nell is in charge of choosing picnic spots as she needs refuelling on the half hour, but then again she is only six and we are expecting her to walk a long way. As I keep telling her “Vi et virtute”. This is the only Latin motto I can recall and I like to translate it as by “strength and courage”, but am happy to be corrected by anyone who studied Latin in preference, say, to geography.

Best Roman museum so far has been at Chesters, and not just because it celebrated Victorian finds by John Clayton, and was adorned with a bat (apparently there are at least 200 more under the eaves). Here we saw buckles and broaches, carvings, pillars, reliefs, a leather sandal, snaffles and horse-laming equipment. But the best story-telling took us to 383AD at Housesteads where the Roman administrator, and one day-to-be-Emperor, Magnus Maximus and a high-class Celtic woman, Valentia, (on the town council, running the inn, collecting the taxes etc) showed us around the infantrymen’s fort with enormous verve. Nell was shocked to be told she might be sold as a slave. In contrast Lola was intrigued by the idea that her “potential” made her surprisingly valuable and of course she already has the assets of being young, able to cook, sew, knit and has a decent set of teeth.

When we’ve had enough the girl gladiators hail the bus with a flourish of their gladiatus (I’m sure it should be gladiati) and we rattle back to Hexham. After learning to cope with the exorbitant Lake District bus fares the Hadrian’s Wall Bus (which also have guides on the 10am service) seems fabulously good value - #8 for returns for one adult and two children; and on Mondays if I spend seven quid on a rover the kids go free… http://www.hadrians-wall.org/ or see Hadrian’s Wall Info Line on 01434 322002. With such a tempting offer you can guess that we will be walking this Monday, whatever the weather.

romans

Feels like the Great Rift Valley

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

Picnicing on one of Hadrian's Walls most dramatic escarpments near Sewingshields Crag, looking at the northern part of Northumberland far below us, the landscape’s dramatic change in level had me dreaming of Kenya and the bits of Africa that the Great Rift Valley weaves across. And this got Lola and Nell thinking about lions, safari and the politics and morals of the Lion King film – and got us singing Akuna Matata (Swahili for don’t worry, be happy) which helped revive our weary feet.

Even on a good summer day, as it was today, up on the tops it is always windy at Milecastle 35, so I am sure it was also a place where many Roman legions dreamt of home. No one has suggested Kenyans served in the Roman army in Britain, but their soldiers were from all over the world – not just France, Belgium and Germany but Iraq, Morocco, Libya and at least 1,000 cavalry men from Sudan. So maybe there is a little hint of Africa on this 2,000 year old border between the barbarians and the “civilised” Roman world.

Next stop Hexham for Hadrian's Wall

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

Hexham – voted best market town to live in by Country Life readers in 2005 and I’m sure they’d think the same again bar the staggering property prices and lack of homes with gardens – is a brilliant town. It’s very nearly the centre of Britain, though this honour is more truthfully held by its neighbour, Haltwhistle. You can even wine, dine and crash at the Centre of Britain Hotel there, see http://www.centre-of-britain.org.uk/. It has a station with links to Carlisle and Newcastle and loads of independent shops. I’ve already bought mohair socks and nettle cheese – both local specialities and eaten at the excellent Dipton Mill Inn which serves Hexhamshire beers and local cheeses, a genuine cheesey pub...

We arrived via the train station - the second oldest in England - but there's still the Abbey to look around, and Hadrian's Wall to walk (using the wittily named AD122 bus [clue: it's the same number as the year Hadrian visited Britain and commissioned the wall]) but we have had time to visit the Old Gaol http://www.tynedaleheritage.org/ which is the most disabled-access friendly museum I’ve ever been in despite being built in 1332. It had a lift taking you to the dungeons and then up two floors in a bid to explain why the Archbishop of York and later the March Wardens needed a purpose built jail – the first in England – in Hexham. Yet again it seems to hang on the activities of the Border Reivers doing reprisal raids and cattle thieving in the debatable lands.

Power of words

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola

Even in this site – a gloomy underpass between town and castle the polished granite rock commands attention. As you draw closer the 14 tonne rock seems to grow in height and girth. Every sentence – and there are many carved carefully on to this vast stone – radiates furious power. As it is intended to do. For this is the final solution from the Bishop of Glasgow, Gavin Dunbar, in a bid to control the troublesome Border Reivers forever.

“…I curse them gangand (going) , and I curse them rydand (riding); I curse thaim standand, and I curse thaim sittand; I curse them etand, I curse thaim drankand; I curse them walkand, I curse thaim sleepand; I curse thaim rysand, I curse thaim lyand; I curse thaim at hame, I curse thaim fra hame; I curse thaim within the house, I curse thaim without the house; I curse tahir wiffis, thair barnis, and thair servandis paticipand with thaim in thair deides...”

This spectacularly violent cursing – and this midway within another 900 more explicit sentences – ensures that the Reivers have nowhere to escape God’s fury. Not even the dunny.

When the Bishop wrote out his curse to stop the Reivers more than 500 years ago everyone felt the fear, the word “reiver” is created from “bereaved” because that’s how the Reivers left anyone not in their anarchic group or those who dared to leave it. At the time everyone knew which trouble makers living on the English/Scottish borders deserved to quiver.

And we do now too because the stone mason/artist, Gordon Young (born in Carlisle and the bearer of a Reiver name) has carved the names of the families into the underpass, in larger and smaller letters and fonts. Here you can find Armstrong, Graham, Noble, Robson, Watson, Young and many others (100 or so) a mix of opportunistic, violent Border families – English and Scots – who ruled the area by fear. As a result Carlisle Castle has a record of being the most attacked of all Britain’s castles – there are still soldiers there. The Bishop issued his curse in 1525 but the area had been famously ungovernable for centuries, which is why the Romans built a huge stone defence across the north of England, Hadrian’s Wall 2000 years ago.

Those names on the paving stones are still owned by many local families. You may well recognise them as your best friends, the school bully, your boss, builders, brewers, media magnets (Dacre, Maxwell), politicians … everyone. The names, the history, the power of memory this evokes is quite astonishing – more gift than curse for the underpass visitor.

Five miles ticked off

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola (pic explanation below)

Just managed to pound the easy-to-follow route of Hadrian's Wall from its start to the Millennium Bridge opposite the Baltic art gallery in central Newcastle. We must all be a lot fitter as we knocked off five miles with no problems whatsoever, helped only by jelly babies (Dr Who's favourite sweet).

Lola was disappointed that we saw a small chunk of original wall at the start - and the rest turned out to be hypothetical. It's so real in our minds we're almost tripping over it though...

Luckily we were able to distract her by raving about the route along the Tyne. It is an amazing industrial journey. We saw cormorants by chemical factories, joy riders by old flour mills, kittiwakes near sand depots; helicopters above anglers catching eels and crab; and Friday-nighters downing their year's alcohol units near the electric bus that circles along the Quay and up to the Metro. It made us all realise that there's so much space in Newcastle rhere to be used - or at least there is if you have a bike, two good legs or enough cash to feed the coins-only ticket machines at the Metro. I couldn't resist snapping this name-and-shame poster. So far we've been to six Metro stations and there's not a ticket seller or member of staff in sight - and definitely nothing as useful as an Oyster card or a ticket machine that accepts notes and cards. I think this pleasure in names is a regional thing - at the start of Hadrian's Wall there's even a plaque with some of the names of the men who designed the wall (engineers not foot soldiers).

Start of Hadrian's Wall

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood. This post is from Nicola


We're breaking ourselves in slowly to the challenge of walking 84 miles along Hadrian's Wall http://www.hadrians-wall.org/ by visiting the start (or the end) in Newcastle upon Tyne. You can get to Wallsend easily on the Metro (like the London tube) and that's where the surprises start: the signs are in Latin (see pic)!

I learnt Latin at school but really only remember the first lesson given by a grumpy teacher who resented telling us that:

"Latin is a language,
As dead as dead can be.
It killed the ancient Romans
And now it's killing me!"

But at Segedunum http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/ the Romans' life in the comforts of a fort is made very real. The bath house - with communal loos (lavatores) and an underfloor heating system (hypocaust) are there to see. You can also go up nine floors to an observation tower and see an overview of the Roman fort where the soldiers and their horses lived. The north side of the site is sliced through by a busy road but looking the other way you can see an original chunk of wall next to the cranes of the Swan Hunter shipyard.

Inside the museum there are loads of computer games including one where you make up a menu for a visiting Roman dignatories. Lola choose snails, then dove, followed by egg custard. I thought dormice, then suckling pig, then omelette with honey poured over the top might be more disgusting. But in the end Nell's choice of squid stuffed with calf brains made us say yuckus louder!

It just proves that school dinners aren't that bad.