The official Hadrian’s Wall path starts at Bowness on Solway on the Solway Firth and goes to Segeduum, which doesn’t quite get walkers to the North Sea. Why would the Romans stop without going sea to sea? Wouldn’t the tribes up north outflank them?
Here’s the answer from “Hadrian’s Wall Path” by Henry Stedman and Jim Manthorpe:
“. . . what is the point of building a wall right across an island if you’re not going to finish the job, thereby allowing the locals to sneak around one end? But with Arbeia Fort guarding the river’s
mouth from the other side of the Tyne and this fort (Segeduum) watching over the land to the east on this side, it’s fair to say that little could cross undetected from one side — of either the Tyne or the Wall — to the other.”
Two forts beats a Wall any day.
Just because the Romans did not want to go sea to sea that doesn’t mean that we couldn’t walk all the way across England. So we set out on Day 10 from Segeduum, which means “strong fort,” to glimpse the North Sea. One map we had showed an “extension” starting at Segeduum and going to Arbeia, which is just short of a place where you can see the North Sea and the Herd Groyne Lighthouse. We could follow the route on the paper map, which is something I have not done for 10 or 20 years. GPS has replaced my mapping brain. Once upon a time, I got a merit badge in orienteering. Later, give me a Thomas Guide and a set of wheels, and nothing was hidden from me. Pluck me in the wilderness with only a folded map and a compass, and I’d be out in two days tops. But if I tried to follow this “extension” route tracing a paper map, it might take us two days to cover the five miles to the fort and sea.
Instead, we chose GPS on our phones; John going with Google Maps and me with Apple Maps. Neither followed the extension route. Off we went and never crossed paths until we met at the ferry dock for the trip across the Tyne and when we approached Arbeia Fort. The view of the North Sea just a few steps away.
Our walk took 10 days (and one rest day). I tracked each day’s mileage on Strava (what part of my brain is it replacing?) and the total was 94.75 miles. Not bad for a couple of guys in their late 70s.
