Day Two

06:53 am: Donnie dropped us off where we finished the day before, near Milecastle 42. From here there are quite a few hills to cross, many of them involving a steep climb. The day before, our Garmin watches ran out of power well short of the finish. So, this time, we only switched my watch on saving the other one for when mine dies.

Because we knew there would be a fair amount of walking in places, we had downloaded some 'pub-quiz' general knowledge questions and answers to pass the time. They did the trick early on in day two but as the day went on we couldn't think straight. We were also getting a little grumpy with each other as fatigue set in. One good thing about day two, it was cooler. Especially on the hills. We still doubled the amount of stops though. It was proving much harder than we anticipated. We still had our own personal pains, Graham's back and now left knee, Stewart still having a problem going down hill and and both of them had blisters. As for me, the pain in my groin had not eased up and now I developed a new pain and swelling in my right shin. But, besides these we all shared one common pain - our feet. They hurt. Each time we made a stop at the van starting off again got harder. We would have to walk a good few feet before we could break out into a slow trot and then start running again.

Our nutritional requirements changed too. Listening to our bodies, they were crying out for salted crisps and hot food. Donnie prepared us some tinned stew on one stop which we covered with salt and pepper. Another stop he heated up some minestrone and tinned new potatoes which we also added salt and pepper to. These meals we ate as well as the pasta and fish dishes we had pre-prepared. Another craving we had was for chips. The only problem was that the nearest Fish & Chip shop was on the outskirts of Newcastle. They were worth the wait though. Running through the streets of Newcastle proved to be the biggest challenge. The pavement was just too hard on the feet. We ran on as much grass verge as we could find. There was nothing to look at either to distract us and I can see why most walkers start from Newcastle and walk to the west coast. The path meanders along the river Tyne but we tried to follow the path of the original wall. This was pretty much impossible. The city was built on top of the wall and there was nothing left of it to follow or see. My camera had ran out of power too which was just as well because of the lack of scenery and now the light was fading too.

 

We finished at Wallsend in the dark. It was on an industrial estate. Donnie had us walk to the next bridge so he could get a better video of us coming in. We held out the Help for Heroes flag and hobbled towards him and the finish. We had no time to hang around though. We had a photo shot then, while talking to our loved one's on our mobile phones we made our way back to the van and to the hotel. We had to then quickly get showered and changed and down into the restaurant for something substantial to eat. We were all back in our rooms and in bed by 11:30pm knowing this time we would have a little bit of a longer sleep.