On to Heddon

Wednesday, July 9th, was a 10 mile walk to Heddon. It would have been a 15 mile walk if we hadn't done the 5 mile walk the day before. Fifteen miles on our first day out would have been a killer.

On Wednesday morning, we took the metro to where we'd left off the trail the evening before. From here, we walked along the Tyne River – past the rest of Newcastle, office buildings, car dealerships, etc. Once, we got lost by (my) ignoring a trail sign and going way the heck out of our way up the A1. A nice postie straightened us out - plus we asked directions a couple more times! After getting back on the trail, we sat in the grass of a field/park to eat lunch. Walking farther along the river, we saw swans swimming and a lovely recreation area.



Approaching Heddon, we turned up the hill to go to our bed and breakfast, but Joan decided to go further up the river path to check out George Stephenson’s cottage. The rest of us cut across a golf course (Fore!) and trudged, trudged, trudged up to our B&B, the Heddon Lodge.
Our hostess, Jacqueline Ryan, let us collapse in her patio furniture and brought us out hot tea and KitKat bars – it all tasted wonderful! Our room was very, very nice. Ms. Jacqueline said she had rented out her home to a Newcastle football (read “soccer”) player and his family, who had utterly trashed the place. Jacqueline had obviously put a lot of home improvement time in since then.
Joan finally arrived around 5:30 or 6 – she hadn’t been able to find the B&B. (This would not be the last time we’d have difficulty finding our lodging…) Then we went for dinner at the Swan Carvery. The vegetables were cooked almost beyond recognition. (Also not the last time…)
The following morning, Ms. Jacqueline cooked and served us breakfast, then left for work...
...and we left for Chollerford/Wall.

(Postie photo from Joan's smugmug page . All other photos taken by Kathie.)