Legs and Borders

16th of November 2023; 4:20 pm After half an hour of manoeuvring above this truly monstrous megapolis, I land in Guangzhou in order to catch a connecting flight to Auckland - my final destination. I was unable to get the boarding pass all the way to New Zealand because the layover in China is slightly longer than 24 hours (the beauty of booking the cheapest flight possible through the murky website) and so I will have to obtain it here in China.  Door of the airport shuttle bus open, I go straight to the border control rather than connecting flight lounge like the rest of the flight, after 20 minutes of waiting in line man in the uniform stands up from his chair and informs me that I need to go elsewhere first to get my 24h transit visa. On the way there I pick up "Arrival/Departure Card For Temporary Entry Foreigners" form assuming it will come in handy at the counter, I borrow a pen from the guy in front of me who borrowed it from the guy in front of him, who got their perm...

As a preparation before the next adventure I'm trying different format of documenting the journey.  I've decided to walk around Canterbury, the city I live in and shoot it on an old Samsung EX1 camera I had for many years now.  Not the greatest of trails, but it's always interesting to see your surroundings!

Last day of my short voyage along the Hadrian's Wall, the wall itself just like around Newcastle area wasn't very visible with one notable example of Hare Hill the tallest remaining part of it - it survived as apparently it has been incorporated into a farm building in the past, so it's been left alone and stands tall until today. Despite the lack of the main component the walk was quite pleasant, running along many farmlands and wooded areas, it was definitely better than its counterpart in Newcastle, perhaps due to the fact that the area is less developed. Night was windy and I had to ditch the plan to sleep inside the Roman turret 49b (they all have fun names like that) as the gusts were trying to rip my tent apart, annoying thing was that it was getting dark so I had to find a replacement spot quickly which wasn't easy as the overall flat area was a perfect corridor for the wind to rumble. After a mile or so I found a cows field with a stone fence around it and just...

Today the weather was mainly windy with splashes of rain and an occasional shy appearance from the sun. The path itself was amazing, completely different from the first 30 miles from Newcastle, it was mainly hiking along the actual Hadrian Wall mostly restored (in 1970s) with many forts, gateways and turrets scattered and still visible along its path. Think I must have walked a similar distance to yesterday, about 24 miles which leaves me with 16 for tomorrow to finish it off in Carlisle, from what I heard the path turns again into a walking next to the side of a road kind of experience for this final (for me) stretch but it's alright with what I have seen today.  Relentless wind made me relocate the campsite at the last minute tonight, I planned to sleep in one of the turrets next to the wall but I just couldn't set up the tent without it being shred to pieces by the wind. Instead I'm staying in a corner of a good old cows field surrounded by a stone fence, it's just e...

This isn't a particularly well planned trip, since I have few days off in a row at work I decided to come over and walk the wall, interaries are typically for 6 days from start to finish (it's just over 80 miles in total plus the detours to castles and various ruins) I got 3 days so any side trips are out of the question. I've booked the bus ticket to Sunderland with National Express as it was cheap (25£) and went overnight so I've arrived here at 6:30am. Getting to Wallsend (the official start/end of the Hadrian's Wall) would take too long from here so I'm just taking a train to Newcastle which is just few miles away from it - if you are a purist you can stop reading this blog now and curse my very existence as I won't be covering every single inch of the path, hike your own hike I guess! Now, 10 hours later the work for the day is over and I'm simultaneously happy and a bit disappointed with how it went. I've managed to cover 24 miles which is more...