Hiking Hadrian’s Wall with UK Contours Walking Holidays

United Kingdom Contours Walking Holidays (Gramyre, 3 Berrier Rd., Greystoke, CA11 0UB, United Kingdom; phone +44 [0] 17684 80451 or visit www. contours.co.uk) handled the arrangements when my husband and I hiked the new Hadrian’s Wall Path from Tynemouth (on the North Sea) to Bowness on Solway Firth, April 3-11, ’04. Officially it is 84 miles, but we went 110 miles as we walked to various museums and forts nearby.

Contours arranged places to stay and luggage transfer. It was perfect for us because of the flexibility offered: we could take seven, eight or nine nights and also select any day we wished to start. The cost for two people with eight nights’ lodging and breakfasts and luggage transfer was €750 (then about $1,329).

Contours sent an official guidebook and a map of the route along with suggestions on what to take. We stayed in B&Bs, farms and small inns. Without exception, every place we stayed was delightful and friendly, with comfortable rooms and delicious food. Take-along lunches could also be prepared for us. All the places we stayed, except one, were within a mile of the Wall Path. The hosts of the one exception picked us up and took us to the lodging and returned us to the wall the next day.

We learned that the majority of hikers take seven nights and six days. We were glad we had an extra day, so we could take side trips and visit interesting places. It was an advantage to have our GPS unit and a walking stick with us.

Hadrian’s Wall officially starts at Wallsend in the east. In order to make it a coast-to-coast walk, we dropped off our luggage at the first hotel at noon, took the metro to Tynemouth and walked back to Wallsend (7.89 miles) on a bicycle path.

It was often cool and windy, but we were comfortable with the clothes we had taken. It rained occasionally on and off but never all day. We passed through dozens of sheep fields with thousands of new lambs. The middle four days were mostly on the wall itself, which was awesome and had outstanding views.

One potential problem — for several days we discovered that there was no place to eat, nor any bank or ATM machines, that accepted credit cards. Be prepared.

We were glad we had gone in the spring. I think that it will be quite crowded in summers because it is a new and extremely popular trail.

— NANCY A. LOGAN, Jamestown, RI