Pennine Way 21 Housesteads to Bellingham

We thought we were in for an easier walk today, 11 miles and all day to do it in, no problems. All I can say is that these must have been Roman miles as in English miles it was much nearer to 14 than 11. Fortunately the weather was dry but still cold and overcast.
We were dropped off on the road and made our way to Rapishaw Gap where the Pennine Way leaves Hadrian's Wall and turns north to the forests and distant views of the Cheviots, our journey's end....but not just yet!

Today we had marshy areas, forest, fields and moors and plenty of uphill, or so it seemed to me. The group split into two after lunch as some were ready to move on before others. A lone Pennine Way walker caught up with us with 6 miles left to go and put us to shame as he had walked all the way from Greenhead with a 12 kilo pack on his back and he was 70 years old. Mind you he was nearly done for but he stayed with us to the end and had plenty to talk about as he had married a Bradford girl many years ago.




I was in the breakaway group and Margaret had a map that went most of the way to Bellingham so apart from one or two places where the path wasn't too well marked we didn't have any problems finding the way.







One last climb up to the radio mast on Shitlington Crag and then at last Bellingham could be seen in the distance and thoughts of a nice cup of tea kept us going till the end.