Jonathan Thomas (00:22)
Welcome to the Anglotopia Podcast, where we explore British travel history and culture, and I'm your host, Jonathan Thomas, and this is a special one. This is the last episode that I'm recording on home soil before I leave for Britain to walk the entire length of Hadrian's Wall. Or as I've been telling people who don't know what Hadrian's Wall is when I talk to them in person, I'm walking across England, quite literally, from coast to coast. If you've been following along,

Through the podcast or week by week on in the Friends of Anglotopia Club Sunday post. You'll know this has been coming for a long time. And well, it's finally here. I'm leaving later this week. The bags are not packed, the boots are hopefully broken in, and the trains are booked and everything else and is is ready to go. I've packed my schedule as packed as it can possibly get. And I wanted to sit down one more time before it all becomes reality and bring you completely up to date the story so far.

look back at this extraordinary year, exactly what the trip look like looks like and how I'm going to cover it for the podcast and for Anglotopia and what I'll be doing once I reach the Western Sea because I have a whole another week in England. first I want to say a big thank you right at the top to the two partners making this whole Adventure possible. my Walk of Hadrian's Wall is being sponsored by Macs Adventure, a self-guided walking and cycling specialist company who have planned and booked this entire trip for me.

And they they have really handled everything and when they agreed to do this last year, that's what made this possible because I didn't know how I would even pay for this trip. And so they've handled it great. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about them in little bit. so th there will be a link in the show notes to their Hadrian's Wall walks, but they don't just do Hadrian's Wall, they do walks all over Britain and they do walks all over the world.

My experience so far has been fantastic. And like I said, there'll be more to talk about in a little bit about Macs Adventure. and separately, I did I manage to line up another sponsor for of the walk. Well, not really of the walk, but after the walk. We're going to do a ten episode podcast series about the walk. So my whole my goal every day is to record a little bit of a podcast and then we will be releasing it in the autumn. and then

That is sponsored by Splash Maps, the makers of the brilliant fabric maps that I've I've been a fan for years. We actually used to sell them in Anglotopia store. And they are releasing a new splash map of Hadrian's wall for people to walk the wall. So there'll be more about that later on as well. and so this has been a long, a long time coming, not just for the last year, but I people who

the f the few people who may have followed Anglotopia for for ten or fifteen years, you will know that I have been trying to walk Hadrian's Wall for 15 years. if you go into deep into Anglotopia's archive, you can see the the graveyard of my ambitions of all the times I tried to begin training for Hadrian's Wall and never and failed and never went and did it. And so it's there's a lot of reasons for that. I don't really need to go into all of them, but

The the difference is that when I wanted to do this in my twenties, when I had a young family is a lot different now that I'm in my forties and my family, there are a bunch of teenagers and everybody can sort of can sort of live without me for two and a half weeks. Whereas 15 years ago, that would have been a big ask and a big lift.

I suppose I should start about a year ago. So about a year ago, and I wrote about this in in last week's Sunday Post. I wasn't in a very good place. I was depressed. It was listless. nothing in my professional or personal life seemed to be going right. and I was sitting in my library and my wife told me that she needed to talk to me about something. And we had a conversation that that was basically life changing. and it's it was a good conversation and it's it's the kind of conversation you can only have with somebody who's been your partner for twenty years.

And my wife essentially told me, you know, she could tell something was wrong. She's like, You need to fix this. You need to do something about it. And so we talked through it and I realized and I said, you know, I need to be in England. I need to go and I need to do something big and I need to to plan for it. And this was in combination with my health was not great. I've I have severe sleep apnea. when I was diagnosed, my my doctor was like, You ha you

How are you alive? And I have hypertension, which runs in my family. And I'm being treated for both and and I'm okay. But I I'm last year I was too overweight. And the idea of doing this walk was like, okay, if I tr have to train to do this walk, I will get in much better shape. It'll improve my health substantially. And I'll have something to plan for and work for. And it'll pull me out of the out of the dark hole that sometimes happens, or the black dog, as Churchill used to call it. And

It's it's been a an amazing year. I mean, it's people who I've been kind of chronicling it every month or so on the the Sunday Post for the Friends of Anglotopia and I've had I've had stops and starts with the training. I've had I've had done lots of different things and I've had lots of issues with training. mostly the it's really hard to to to find places to walk long distances around where I live here in Indiana.

And so it it's it's been interesting. And I mean to to kind of summarize, I mean, I I'm if I had attempted to do this walk a year ago in the shape I was a year ago, I probably would have ended up in the hospital somewhere in northern England, which would not have been good. but now I am in a much better place than I was a year ago. Health wise, I am about forty pounds lighter. I can I know I can walk long distances because I have.

And I'm I'm about as physically ready as I'm gonna get for this walk, he says leaving in a few days. and it's gonna be a shock to the system anyway. Anybody who attempts to walk 84 miles in 10 days straight is gonna it's gonna be challenging themselves. and so many people may be wondering why do I want to walk Hadrian's wall? Why this thing specifically, why?

For for one, it's doesn't seem like it's a very long trail. England has other national trails. This is the shortest. The other ones are hundreds of miles long. And my stance with this is well, I was interested in the Roman history, like a typical white American male. I think about Roman history a lot. Actually think more about British history, but and I've always been fascinated by the Had Hadrian's Wall and not only w the real Hadrian's Wall, but what it's inspired in history like the famous wall and Game of Thrones.

This idea that there's this frontier where civilization stopped. And it was this, you know, where it gathered soldiers from all over the Roman Empire in this cold, rainy place in northern England, who basically the bastions of of Roman civilization. And that's always fascinated me. But I have found though that in the last year or so, as I read up on and written about Hadrian's Wall history, I'm actually actually not that interested in the history so much anymore. I'm interested in the walk.

And I I think it's because 84 miles of the National Trail seemed achievable. and it it at least for me with my physical state. I you know, I it seemed like something I could take a break and do and not be gone for too long. And the way the that Macs Adventure breaks it up over 10 days feels like it's manageable and will not physically

Kill me. So I think that that's kind of why I'm doing it at this point. And I am looking forward to seeing all I'm the wall and following along. But actually, big chunks of the walk don't include the wall. And 15 miles at the beginning and 15 miles at the end don't have much of the wall. But I am looking forward to walking out of Newcastle. I'm starting in Newcastle and I'm going west to I'm sorry, east to west.

And I'm looking forward to starting in a city and literally walking out of a city. I've never experienced that before. And then walking into the open countryside. And it's it's it's there's a romance to it that I feel like is really appealing. And I'm very excited about it. even though it's gonna probably be the hardest thing I've ever done. And I've done a lot of hard things in my life. I mean, I'm 43, I've done lots of hard things. This this could

This is going to be the hardest, at least physically on my body. and another small reason I want to do it is I have ancestral connections to Durham, which is nearby Hadrian's Wall. So this is a very much a landscape that my people come from. And so I'm looking forward to communing with that connection a little bit and seeing, you know, this from what I know about about the people who live there, and they

They were in the Durham area in a village called Shincliffe. And I actually visited this village a few years ago. It's a beautiful little place. And this is the landscape they inhabited. And it's the landscape they left and came to North America and never went back to. And so this is kind of me going back and and understanding this landscape that they left and felt like they needed to leave. So like I said, I you know, I am not in the greatest shape, and I'm not much of a walker, and I I hate exercising. I hate

I I growing up I hated gym class and and I hated moving. And that's the problem when you're an adult because you need to move or else you gain weight and you get it creates all kinds of health problems. And I don't I I I'm not I've never been particularly cared about my health or how I looked and I I really needed to start because it the problems have compounded, like I said, with sleep apnea and hypertension. Hypertension runs in my family.

It was inevitable for me. And but the sleep apnea also runs in my family. And that has has you don't really think about your sleep very much until you're sleeping poorly and 'cause it ruins literally every other aspect of your life. And and my doctor was like, If you just lose twenty percent of your body weight, the sleep apnea will probably go away and the quality of your life will substantially improve. So that's really what I've been I've been working on is is just improving my health to the point where

I can sleep better and I'm healthier and I will live longer, hopefully. And so the the because I don't like to exercise, the least bad option to me was to walk. I do kind of like to walk. when I was growing up as a teenager, I walked a family's dog every day. and that kept me in good shape when I was a teenager. And you know, walking allows you to think, it allows you to commune with nature. We do have several national parks around here.

but it it's it's I could tolerate walking. And then I ran into issues where I actually don't have many places to walk. I have stri I live in the country in Indiana, and so I'm on I'm on county roads where but I'm on very busy county roads, so walking has been a challenge around my house and it's it's been a whole thing. but I've managed, I've done some walking, I've been to some beautiful places here in Indiana that I didn't even know existed.

That's been one takeaway from this that I suppose I should save for the book. I'll probably write about this eventually, is that one thing that really surprised me about Indiana, a place I've always considered to have a very boring and not not interesting landscape. I've actually discovered some really beautiful places here that I had no idea existed simply because I just was never exposed to them. And having to go find a random trail on my trail app and go walk it, I

had some amazing experiences. I also had some terrifying experiences. So yeah. And so doing this walk now, it's turning something that I always wanted to do someday into I am doing this. And that that shift is so important because I'm a very big advocate of setting goals and achieving them. And when I started Anglotopia, I started it with the goal that I wanted it to get me a a trip to Britain.

And that was back in 2007 and it did it and then it did it again and it again and again. But in the last few years, the like I said, the business was listless, I was listless, things needed to change, some needed to inject some new life into everything to so the business would grow again and so I would grow again. And so that's that's why I'm doing it now. And the and the fact that I was very public about it, talking about on the podcast, talking about it,

on the Sunday post for the Friends of Anglotopia, that means I had a group of people who I was kind of accountable to. And so and then after that conversation with my wife last summer, when I decided that this is I'm gonna do this, in very quick succession, I lined up Macs Adventure as a sponsor. And that was really that put it on the calendar. That that meant it was going to happen. When I saw the booking confirmations come in for my hotel, I was like, I am really going to do this. I

Have 10 months to prepare my body physically to do this walk. And so I put it on the calendar. I've talked about it ad nauseum with my family, who were I've probably driven mostly insane by talking about it. I've talked about it with my kids and my wife. I've talked about it with my dog. I even got a new dog. And the whole and all of this, I've like I like in all of this whole process. last summer, I've I mentioned the dog that I walked when I was growing up. It was an Irish setter.

My entire adult life, all I've wanted was an Irish setter again, because I just love the dog. They're beautiful and they have good temperament. And I just I've always wanted another Irish setter. And so last year to encourage me to walk, my wife bought me an Irish setter as as our as my anniversary present last year. And it was born in July. I was actually born yesterday, this time last year. And we took it home in I think it was early October. And

His name is Hudson. I'll put a picture of him in the show notes. He if you go on our social media, he's been in my social media a few times. He's the handsomest, most misbehaved dog you can possibly imagine. And he has been my steadfast walking companion. he's been on more walks than he probably actually wanted to go on. So, but he's a high energy dog, so he needs the walks. And I need the walks. So we've been we've been work working through it together. And so like I said, once I did all these walks with the dog, once but this was

The trip was on the calendar for Macs Adventure. There was nothing to stop it. And then last January I bought the plane ticket. And I mean, that's it. I I can't emphasize enough this is happening. It's happening later this week. I I my countdown is down to several days here. And I forgive me for not saying how many days because I don't like to say where I'm gonna be when, just because it's the internet.

This this whole thing is not just a big thing for me, it's also a big thing for Anglotopia it's a big thing because I landed a major sponsor through Macs Adventure. They so they I will be sharing parts of my trip on social media. They want me to do a podcast episode about the whole walk and a few other things. And then I realized though that this whole process

is is much bigger than just one episode of the podcast. I think I realized that it could be a whole a whole mini series. And so to accommodate that, I wanted to do a 10 episode series about the walk where I'll I'm gonna record my thoughts and and everything while I'm walking to make the the backbone of those episodes. And I needed a sponsor for those because you know what?

Even though I had my ticket plane for and a Macs Adventure was paid for, there was still a lot that still needed to be paid for to prepare for this walk. And so

Splash Maps

they came in last May as a sponsor of this podcast series. And so they helped make the rest of this trip possible. And I couldn't be more grateful with with Splash Maps for helping to do that. they even commissioned a special map of Hadrian of the Hadrian's Wall National Trail that I'm going to be taking with me. I don't have it with me yet. It's supposed to arrive here any day now.

and I will share it along the way, share some social media posts about it. It's gonna be the mapping I use in my videos that we're gonna release. And then yeah, so the more about Splash Maps later on. I actually did an interview with the owner of Splash Maps earlier in the summer, which I'll link to in the show notes, where I talked about how I'm preparing for this Adventure.

So let's talk about the nitty-gritty of the trip. Cause I know a lot of people like to know about these things. And I like to talk about them because this is my passion. so planning. Let's talk about planning. So now Macs Adventure have planned everything. so but before Macs Adventure came into the picture, years over the years, I have a library of stuff about Hadrian's wall. Because what do I do when I'm interested in something? I buy all the books about it. And so I've got

You know, the the Cicerone and the the Trailblazer guide to Hadrian's Wall. If you're if you're on YouTube, I'm holding them up and I'll link to them in the show notes. these are great guidebooks that explain the whole route. I'm actually I won't be taking any of these with me and I'll explain why in a little bit. they even have a little map, I'll take the maps though.

Then I, you know, I did this thing when I, you know, when I first start wanted to do this 15 years ago, and I bought I bought all the ordnance survey maps of of the entire route of the wall. And and when you lay these out, I laid these out on the floor in my basement of the house I lived in at the time. I took up the whole floor in the basement. It was massive. And I love ordinance survey maps. They're beautiful. but again, I'm not bringing them and I'll explain why.

But they've been a blast to look at as for planning and to see what to expect on the walk. so so a few weeks ago, Macs Adventure sent me a packet, like a welcome packet to prepare me for my trip. I want to show that to you. So it's this little that came in it came via Royal Mail. I was delighted. And then it it came with one thing is it came with a luggage tag, which is very cool because

the key thing that Macs Adventure do, as part of the the package that you book is they move your bag from hotel to hotel. So while I'm walking the wall, all I have to carry with me is a day pack. My luggage is gonna be is gonna be handled for me. So every morning at by nine AM I take my suitcase down to reception at the hotel I'm staying in and and the service comes and picks up my bag and will take it to the next hotel.

And hopefully meet me there later than the day when I get there. And then I just have to have breakfast and have my day pack and get ready to go and walk and walk that leg of the trail. they included a kind letter preparing me for my walk, which has a key. I should probably not show any personal information. There's no personal information on it. And then they included a little guidebook, which this was really handy. It told me.

Basically, what to expect on the walk, how to do a self-guided walking tour like this, what to pack, how to have safety, what happens if something happens, where to where to share on social media, all that good stuff. and they also sent me an email a few weeks ago of what they're expecting from as a sponsor of this. So I have a to-do list to take care of while I'm gone and my project manager. So we will take care of those things for Macs because

I want them to get everything out of this so that I'm getting out of it because they've they've taken the trouble to do this. And the key thing though that they want that Macs Adventure wants everybody to do is to download their app. And so this app, I mean, I'm a tech guy, Anglotopia has an app. I've built apps. but this app is incredible. and it's for available for iPhone and Android. And what this app does is it's the center.

of your trip. And I'm sorry if you can hear my son mowing along. I told him not to do that, but while I'm recording, but he did it anyway. and it has hide the the date information there, but it has your trip in the app, okay? And then it lets you download the whole itinerary and everything, all the mapping and guides and everything. So if you happen to have no mobile signal while you're out in the middle of the countryside, you still have all the stuff in the map because your GPS will still work no matter where you are.

And it has your entire itinerary in the app, and then it has all your hotel information. it and it gives you an overview of your route for the day, tells you what you're gonna see, where you can stop and eat. It has your entire route, which then you will link to your navigation on your phone so you can do your basically a turn by turn directions for a walk through the countryside. And so it has the weather report and it had and that.

This is really cool. It has tips from other people who have done the same walk and the same stage so you can get real on the ground information about your about your trip. And it has information on your accommodation, how to check in. it has your booking details so you can call the hotel. It's got information on the luggage transfer and it's got everything you could possibly need. so I'm looking forward to this being my guide for the day and

Because of the app and the other apps that I have, I mean, there's no reason to bring guidebooks or apps. And anything I bring I have to carry with me for ten to fifteen miles a day. So I don't really want to bring a ton of stuff. So the sadly the romantic maps that I've been staring at for fifteen years are gonna stay home. which is fine. I will I still love looking at them anyway, and I can look at them when I'm done and see all the places I went and be like, I saw that. so yeah, this is

The app is super cool. The app is free. I mean, but you have to book a trip with them to get access to all the stuff. And so when you book a trip, it gives you access to the app and everything. So I highly recommend them just for the app because the experience so far has been great. I can't wait to get on the trail and and and try it out. so

let's talk a little about a bit about my itinerary. So

thanks to the lovely support of my wife. I'm not actually leaving the day before the walk starts. I'm leaving the day before the day before. So I'm I'm leaving for an overnight flight to the UK from Chicago. Then I'll arrive in England in the very early in the morning. And then I have most of the day to to recover from jet lag and get to Newcastle. So I need to get to to Newcastle because that's where the walk starts, but my journey is not starting

directly in Newcastle. So I've already booked a train ticket to Newcastle. But then I am my first night I'm stay I booked, I use my hotels.com rewards that I've been hoarding for years to book stay at Lumley Castle, which is a 14th century castle hotel in Chester Le Street, which is just down the street from Newcastle. And so this is like my

preparation night kind of. I'll have a nice dinner in the castle. I'll get to stay in a castle. And then I get ready for the walk the next day. And I'll probably do a walk nearby the castle as well just to kind of pre-game. And then so I'll stay there overnight. And then the next day I don't have it all planned out yet. It's gonna be kind of how I feel from the jet lag because I'm gonna be near Beamish, which is it's a living history museum in in the black Country of Durham, which I've always wanted to go to.

and I I'm gonna I might have a couple hours where I can fit in a visit if I show up right when the place opens. So I I really want to go there. So I'm hoping I feel up to it. but after I've done that, I need to get to n back to Newcastle. So I'll I'll take a taxi back to Newcastle or the train. I mean it's one stop on the train, no big deal. I'll get back to Newcastle and then my hotel is right in the center of Newcastle, and so

That begins my Adventure in Newcastle. I've never been to Newcastle. I've driven by it on our way to from from Lands End John of Groats, but I never stopped. So I'm looking forward to visiting Newcastle. It's a looks like a beautiful old city with lots of regeneration. And my hotel is right in the center of Newcastle. I'll drop my bag. And then it's I'm gonna have what I'm calling day zero.

I should probably talk about the geography of the walk before I get into this. my notes are telling me I should have done that. So getting ahead of myself. So Hadrian's Wall, in the Roman times, it kind of it ran from Wall's End and which is a neighborhood now in Newcastle. It's literally called Wall's End. The walk starts in

in Wall's End, where there's a museum, a Roman history museum. And there you get your Hadrian's Wall passport. And this is a little booklet that you get that you can stamp at the at the various waypoints along the way. And the goal is to get all the stamps. So you get this at at Wall's End and there's a museum there, which I plan to visit. but and then and then the walk begins there and then you have five miles basically following the Tyne River in Newcastle.

It just literally follows along the river and you basically see all of Newcastle. And then beyond that, you literally walk, you continue to follow the Tyne pretty much all the way till the to the first stop. And then I'm not gonna kinda go into the each the nitty-gritty of each stop because it's like I'll be here for more than an hour and and we're gonna talk plenty about it in the special podcast I'm gonna record. But I'll give you quickly give you the stages. It's it's walls in to Heddon

And then it's Heddon to Corbridge. Then it's Corebridge to Charlford. Then it's Charlford to Once Brewed which is a weird name for a village, but it's really the name of the village, trust me. Once Brewed to Gills to Gillsland, and then Gilsland to Haytongate, Hayton Gate to Carlisle, and then Carlisle to Bowness on Solway, which is the end of the end of the walk. And the middle sections after you get out of Newcastle largely follow the path of the original Hadrian's Wall.

the Newcastle because it's a big city, it's been built over a lot of the wall, just isn't there anymore. And so that's why you're following the Tyne River on the national trail. But once you get outside of the city limits, you'll begin to follow the wall. And the wall goes all the way to Bowness on Solway. And we're we're gonna follow it along its way. And then I can't wait to to walk along those old stones. And so a lot of people will do the walk west

East. They'll start in Bowness on Soulway and end in Newcastle. I did consider doing it that way. there was a I did a podcast last year with Quentin Lake where he talked about walking Hadrian's Wall. And and I also did one with one of the guides at Macs Adventure, and that really convinced me to to do East to West simply because I wanted the experience of walking out of a city.

as somebody who grew up on the outskirts of Chicago, like the idea of walking out of the city into the open countryside, right into Roman history, just that's it's too it's so appealing. I like I gotta do it. So that's why I ended up doing Newcastle the other way. So won't be at my the weather won't be at my back, but you know, I'll have to manage and so back to Newcastle.

So my plan is to have a day zero. So if I don't do day zero, then my first day of walking the next day, I have to walk 15 miles. That's a long time. I don't, I've never walked 15 miles in one stretch. So I want to ease into this. And so I've decided what I'll do is I'm going to start at walls end after I get my stamp. And I'm going to walk, and this was in the app.

This was a recommendation in the app or one of one of the guidebooks. I don't remember who recommended it. But you do the first five miles in the city. You just do it the day you get there because it's five miles. This I could do five miles in my sleep. And so I'll walk from Walls End basically back to my hotel, and that gets the first five miles out of the way. So then the next day, when I start the walk properly for day one, I only have to do the 10 miles from from my hotel to

the first the first waypoint. And I will say now, ten miles is still the longest walk I will I will have ever taken. So in w in a single day. I'm really nervous about it. I hope I can I I mean I have no choice. I have to do it. I have to get to my next hotel. I'm a little scattered today because these final few days before I leave are just

They're so packed. There's so much to do. but I wanted to record this and this be the podcast that's released when I'm gone because it really sets the tone for what's coming in the next few months. and I'll talk about what's coming on the podcast at the end so that people can kind of know what to expect. So anyway, but I'm also planning to do something a little different. So because I'm me and I've I've watched countless mini TV shows about walks in Britain.

I've watched several TV shows about walking Hadrian's Wall. I've watched several about other national trails. I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do my own twist on this walk. so there's a there's another national trail that walks across England and it's called the Wainwright Coast to Coast, and it's further south and it's almost 200 miles. and I I would like to do that one day, and I'm I'll talk about this a little more later. This this hopefully this walk is the first of the beginning of a of a yearly.

long walk in England for me. So the the the Wainwright Coast to Coast, I've I there was a show about it a few years ago that was hosted by Julia Bradbury and she did the walk and then also talked about the the literary history of Wainwright and how he did the walk and brought his book and it's an iconic walk and it actually just became a national trail in the last year. And so it's a really big deal in the walker world. but

I digress. I'm getting off topic here. In in the TV show, she did a thing that I always remembered. And she said that a lot of walkers have a tradition when they start the Wainwright coast to coast, they dip their to they take off their hiking shoes, they dip their toes in the North Sea. And then when they get to the other end in in the Irish Sea, they they do the same thing. They dip their they took hiking shoes off and dip their toes in the Irish Sea to kind of complete that circle.

And so while I'm not starting the walk at the North Sea at Tynemouth I I I'm I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna dip my toes in the North Sea. For one, I've never seen the North Sea other than driving by it. And I just I wanna do it. I'm gonna so I'm gonna dip my toes in the North Sea. And then and then when I reach the end of the walk in Bowness and Solway, if there's if the water's in, if the tide is in, I don't if it will be, I'll dip my toes in the water there as well.

and complete that circle. so and I know from my from my research that there's a castle at Tynemouth there's a beach, there's probably gonna be chips involved, chunky chips involved, seaside chips. so I'll do that and then I'll go back to Wall's End and start my five mile walk. And to accomplish this, so I don't have to do all the walking because actually Tynemouth is quite far from the center of of Newcastle and I don't wanna overdo it.

I'm gonna rely on the Tyne & Wear Metro, which many people don't know that Newcastle has its own underground system, a lot like the tube. And I'm gonna be relying on that to get around Newcastle. And don't worry, you can count on count on a video and articles and lots about the Tyne & Wear Metro because the train nerd in me is super excited about actually riding it. So I'll ride the Tyne & Wear Metro out to Tynemouth and I will dip my toes in the North Sea and then I will come back to Wall's end and start

Walk and I'll start that walk on day zero. And and the guidebooks are like, it's a really boring walk. You're just walking along a river through a city, and I'm like, Well, I like cities and I like architecture, and there's a bunch of neat bridges and a bunch of neat buildings that have been built in the last couple decades, so I'm really looking forward to it. I I think it'll be cool. and I I you know there's it should be fun. It's gonna be an Adventure because I

I've never been there and I've never done this before. So and then from then on, the next day I'll start my the walk properly. I'll walk my 10 miles out of the city. And then it I have so the app has kind of prepared me for what to see and do along the way. I also did some research on my own and have I've sort of like I have a rough itinerary of all the things to see and do along the wall, and I it in my Trip It. I use Trip It.

My itineraries, in case you're curious. it's a very old web 2.0 platform, but it you know it works for me and I and it because it links to all the calendars and it's and you just forward it things and it puts them on, and it's no one's made a better tool for me, so I use Tripit. And so I put all these things in my Tripit. And if I do them, I do them. If I don't, I don't. And that's the thing that I I want to make clear: is there is a lot to see and do along this walk, other than open countryside.

and there's normally I'd feel very pressured to see and do everything, but I simply can't see and do everything. Some things are a bit of a trek off the wall, off the trail. And if I if I add them to my itinerary, I'm gonna be doing too much. And I'm gonna be walking, I'm gonna be overdoing the distance. So I have to be careful and be a little selective on what I do end up doing. And there's so much on the wall itself. All the interesting Roman things were on the wall, all the mile castles are on the wall.

All the big forts like Vindolanda like they are all literally on the wall. So hopefully I won't have to trek too far from the wall to see these things. But there's other things I want to see other than the wall. Cause like I said, as I've done the research for this and and read the books and stuff, I'm I'm less interested in Roman history than I was before I started. I'm I will admit I did watch Gladiator the other day to kind of to prep. but I do want to see Sycamore Gap where the tree was cut down. I wanna see

Lanacross Priory. I wanna there one of my night stopovers is in Carlisle. I wanna see Carlisle Castle and Cathedral and and there's a few other things. Like I saw there's an airplane museum along the way. Like these are things I really want to see. If I see them all, okay. If I don't, I'm there's gonna be so much to write about and take pictures of and have content about from this trip that if I don't do everything, it just gives me an excuse to come back. So

And I can always come back because there's there's a there's a bus that runs along the entire length of the wall. And if you want to do these things another time, you literally just get on the bus and go see them. And I can do that at the end too if I want, because I and I'm getting ahead of myself, but I do have a day after the walk is done where I could s go back and see anything I missed along the way if I wanted to.

probably not gonna do that. I have a plan, but there's this isn't my only chance to see a lot of these things. I I I wanna spend a lot more time in northern England in the coming years. So I I can always come back and see these things. But I wanna I wanna build a narrative, build a route of interesting things so that people have something to gravitate towards when they read our content. And I wanna hopefully find some American connections because that really resonates with our readers and our and our podcast listeners. So

Stay tuned for all that. and then I I already explained the itinerary, it's gonna take ten days. they Macs Adventure do have options to do the walk in less days. And I I think but I think ten is the longest they offer. And like you can do it in three or four days, you can do it in a week. when I interviewed Quentin Lake, he did it in four days. I'm taking my time.

this is our like I said, this is already the long the longest, the biggest amount of walking in a row I have ever done in my life. And so I wanted to give myself as much time as possible to complete this because I have to complete it. I have to do it not just for my physical health, but to to really have achieved this goal. And I I will I'm not gonna be like do a few miles and then get on the bus and get to the next get to the next trailhead because that's not doing it.

And that's I'll never be able to live with myself that I did all I went through all of this to go do this and then I I didn't do it all. Like that's not that's not gonna happen. I don't I don't do things that way. So what's the weather looking like? I've been I've been I'm now at the stage where the weather for when I'm gonna be there is the forecast is accurate and it's gonna be looks like sixties and seventies degrees Fahrenheit.

And it looks like it might rain almost every day. So good thing I bought waterproof gear. so and I should probably talk about gear that I have bought. I'll go through this real quickly. I have bought gear for this various bits and bobs. I I bought hiking boots earlier in the year.

I wasn't originally going to take these hiking boots, but they're well broken in and I really like them. And after talking with some experts, they're gonna work, so I'm gonna take them. And then I also have a pair of walking shoes, which I bought a couple weeks ago. So one of the pieces of advice I got from Macs Adventure when I interviewed the guide last year was that a lot of the walking at the beginning and at the end is on flat pavement.

And so you're better off wearing walking shoes for that rather than wearing hiking shoes. So I'm wearing New Balance walking or the really running shoes, but I basically trained in them for the last year and a half. I bought a new pair though a few weeks ago for this walk. Very happy with them. My feet never hurt after a long amount of walking. So I so I've I'm taking two pairs of shoes with me. I'm bringing waterproof pants, waterproof waterproof jacket.

the boots are waterproof, but I'm gonna buy a spray. That's gonna that's gonna improve that. I'm bringing a waterproof backpack. The backpack has a water bladder in it. I actually might not take the bladder, I might just bring a water bottle with me. I haven't made that final decision yet because the the bladder is kind of awkward. I don't know how I'm gonna keep it clean over ten days. So I anyway, this is neither here nor there. I'm I'm I'm a travel carry-on only guy, so

I'm only bringing what will fit in my carry-on, which is I've got to fit two weeks worth of clothing in the carry on, which is gonna be a challenge, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to do laundry along the way. And I'll talk about that in minute. and so I I I I buy I I'm bringing Columbia socks, to go with my Columbia boots because I that's what I trained in. The socks are really comfortable.

I I'm not bringing walking poles. I I may pick something up when I get to the UK. I just don't want to bring like I have very limited space in my luggage because I travel carry-on only. and there's also a weight limit for the luggage transfer service. I was like, well, I could check a bag and bring a huge bag, but then I have to manage that giant bag all the way out to Newcastle. And then when I'm done with the walk and I have another week left, I've got to manage this giant bag. It just does not appeal.

So sticking to carry on only. and then like I said, I brought a jacket, but I'm actually gonna bring a warmer, a warmer coat just because in the evenings it's supposed to be in the 40s and some some nights. And and while I don't really plan to be out in the evenings, the in once brewed the weirdest name village ever, I'm staying at the twice brewed inn. I'm noticing the theme here.

it's in the Northumbrian Dark Sky Reserve. And they actually have an a planetarium and observatory on site. Now, unfortunately, the observ the planetarium is not doing a thing the night I'm there, and I'm only there for one night, obviously. So I won't be able to do this the the new the normal astronomical experiences they do, but I am gonna be out in this dark sky reserve, so I'm really looking forward to being out to see.

This I've never seen the stars in the Milky Way like that. So I'm looking forward to that. there's a lot of little things like that I'm looking forward to that I'm not even covered and that were mentioned in the app or I'm planning to do. Again, this will all be for the longer form podcasts that are coming. and then what else what else am I am I bringing? I'm bringing my camera, I'm bringing my the digital camera that is filming this, bringing my microphones, because I'm gonna be recording a lot while I'm gone, laptop.

And during the day I'll carry my laptop with me and my cameras with me and my snacks and my food and my water. But that's it, because the bag is moving from hotel to hotel. So everything can go in there. and then I'm bringing some Anglotopia hats. I should have brought one to demonstrate it. I got some new hats made with Anglotopia's logo on it. just so to keep the sun out of my eyes. I I got new glasses about a month ago, so I'll have my new gr Anglotopia green glasses. I don't know if you can tell they're green.

And that's really it for anything special I'm bringing. I I'd like to thank my parents. They they bought a lot of this stuff for my Christmas present last year to support the walk. so that's all coming with. And yeah, hopefully I stay dry, hopefully I stay vertical, and hopefully I don't die from all of walking. So so what is coming down the line for content for everybody? So there's a lot.

like I said, this is a big deal. And I'll and it's not all gonna come out at once. It's gonna come out over the next year or more. I mean, I'm st up until a few months ago, I was still publishing stuff from the trip we took back in 2024. So this stuff will be coming out over the over the coming years. This is gonna be years worth of content. so there is gonna be a one off podcast, which is the one sponsored by Macs Adventure that they want as part of the the sponsorship.

Where it'll be overview of the walk and my thoughts on it and everything and how things went. that will come out probably in September, right after I get back. they they don't expect me to post a ton while I'm walking. They're fine if I do it when I get back. I may still do some while I'm walking. but again, I'm gonna be sharing on social media. I'll share some pictures, I'll sh maybe share some rough reels on Instagram and Facebook while I'm walking.

But again, a bulk of the stuff that I'm gonna release will be after. I'm mostly gonna be focused on filming, recording and getting the walk, daily walk done. And I'll worry about content publishing later because it's it can be too much. We've done we've done trips in the past where like for example, when we did Lands in the John of Groats, we did a daily video.

of that day's driving and things we did that day with narration, with editing, with everything. And so like I was literally we would travel all day, do the thing, do the research all day. And then in my hotel room at night I was editing video and releasing video. And I'm like, that's really not a way to do it. for one, they weren't that polished. And two, most of the viewers for this stuff and when we release it will be in the years after. It will not be when we

release it right away. And with reach on social media, like even if I posted something the same day, you all wouldn't see it until days later anyway. So there's no there's no push anymore to to to break to break my spirit to to to film and edit something every day and release it that day. the recency isn't critical anymore to whether this succeeds or not. Like I said, most of the viewers of this stuff will come in the weeks and months and years that follow. So

So we'll do little posts and stuff while I'm I'm I'm walking. But my again, my focus is to get the stuff in the can and to edit it all together later. we're gonna do a 10 episode podcast series again, sponsored by Splash Maps. We're so every day at at the end of the day, I'm gonna take like twenty, thirty minutes and just record everything I did that day, my thoughts, everything. and then we will edit that into the into the podcast later on. And once we'll start releasing those this autumn.

probably in October because we have a special series coming, Jane Austen series coming in September. So that's six episodes. So after that, we will probably start releasing the walk the walk podcasts. And those will be outside of our regular podcast cadence. So we right now we release the new episode of the podcast every Wednesday to members, every Friday to the general public. We're gonna keep doing that because I have podcasts in the can for months ahead. So

That stuff's going to continue to come out every week. The special podcasts will come out probably on Monday or Tuesday, the same week. So we'll be essentially for the rest of the year, we'll be releasing two podcasts a week, which is a lot. but our data has shown that the more we release, the more people listen. So we hope you enjoy listening to me talk because you're gonna hear a lot of it. So

Like I said, I will do s social media posts from the trail on on our Instagram, on our Facebook page, on Threads and on Blue Sky. So if you're not familiar with Blue Sky or Threads, give us a follow there. I'm gonna film content for reels that we'll release after the fact, like for our last trip.

You may remember we released like little mini three minute documentaries about a thing related to a thing we saw. We're gonna do that again. so I'll film all the content for that and then we'll edit those together and do narration when I get back. and then I'm gonna we're gonna I'm gonna be doing research and writing articles and stuff, but I again I'm not doing any of that while I'm walking. I will gather the research, take my notes, get the guidebooks that for the tourist attractions, and I will compile it all again into stuff later on and

Those articles will be published Friends of Anglotopia first. Again, the podcast will go to Friends of Anglotopia first. updates will go to Friends of Anglotopia first. the photography, Friends of Anglotopia first. and then I think I might write a book about this walk. I haven't decided yet. I need to do it first and then decide if there's enough material there for a book. I think there is, but I also have to find the right hook.

But I don't you nobody wants to talk about writing process on a or listen to a writer talk about writing process. So we'll see how it goes. I I mean, on the surface of it, 84 miles doesn't seem like a lot to write a book about, but I mean, I've written quite a bit already about this walk and I haven't even taken it yet. So I think there's a lot there that could turn into an an inspirational or interesting memoir about walking. but I mean

That's the thing though, is there's so many books by middle-aged guys like me and who write about the transformative power of walking. So like I don't want to do like I don't want to I don't want to add to that chorus. So I need to figure out how I would talk about this differently. That wouldn't be such a kind of an eye roll for everybody to to go through. So TBD on a book. and then maybe I

I many, many years ago we released like ten years ago, we longer than that, it was when our kids were babies. We released a series of videos called Travels in Britain, which were like these little Rick Steves style videos of places we visited with the history and the culture and and and all that. And we filmed them and we released them from our Diamond Jubilee trip back in 2012. And they weren't a big of a hit then, but

I always liked the concept and I liked doing them, even though they were a lot of work. And I I learned last year when I was looking at the analytics for it though, that those videos cumulatively have gotten half a million views on YouTube, which blew me away. and so that made me think that this format, there's some legs in this format. So again, I'm gonna film everything I can so that I could compile hopefully a new series of Travels in Britain.

But again, that comes after I've done all the things I'm obligated to do already as for the sponsors of this. So we will see. TBD. There's a lot coming, folks. I'm doing a lot. but at the end of the day, I have to do this walk first. So and then after the walk, I'm not just coming home. and this

Mrs. Anglotopia has given me another week to do whatever I want in England. Now, originally she was supposed to join me at the at the end of the walk and and be there at the end, which I can't think of a better a better motivation for that final day of fifteen miles worth of walking than for the love of my life to be at the end of the line. but unfortunately, she cannot come and do that. I

I don't know how much I should go into it, but essentially, and I wrote about this in the Friends of Anglotopia. A tree fell on our house back in May, and the house is fine. it had a ton of damage. The house is still habitable, but the ha the tree falling on the house had was like a pebble in an ocean of unintended consequences this summer. And so it it

It was hard enough to make this trip happen financially. And so to have anybody who's ever had to make a homeowner's insurance claim knows that it costs you money, especially for the stuff that the homeowner's insurance doesn't cover and it's a deductible. And so there is a lot that i it basically reconfigured the finances of of this entire summer. And there was no way that we could pay for a plane ticket for her, all the train tickets, all the extra hotels. Like there was no way.

she was gonna be able to come and combine that with some professional obligations. there she just she can't she can't get away. And I am a horrible dad and husband because I am literally leaving this wasn't originally happening, but I'm now leaving the day that's the day before school starts. originally I was leaving after school started, but

The Laporte Community School District Board voted this spring to move the start of school back for some reason to align it with something else. And that meant that now I wouldn't be home for that first day of school, which anybody with kids knows. That's a big deal. You gotta be there on the first day of school, but I couldn't I can't I couldn't change anything. So I'm now leaving the day before school starts. And so that's already gonna be hard enough on everybody. And so

It's just she can't get away because somebody has to be here to put the kids on the bus for the first day of school. So unfortunately my wife isn't gonna be with me. So that and I don't so my we were gonna have a little romantic week in northern England and then in London and we had all these wonderful romantic things planned. And you know, my favorite thing in the world is traveling around England with her. She's the she's the best travel companion. So I'm I'm really bummed she's not gonna be with me.

But I'm gonna I'm gonna make I'm gonna make wine from these sour grapes. I'm gonna do things that she would just absolutely hate. So there's gonna I'm gonna try so I some of it's still up in the air. but when I'm done with my walk, I'm going to go back to Carlisle and take the train. I'm gonna do the Settle and Carlisle line, which is a one of the most famous railway lines in Britain, scenic railway lines.

The famous Rublehead Viaduct. I'm gonna go ride that. I'm not going to Leeds or Carlisle, but I'm gonna ride the line and end up some I think I'm gonna end up in Leeds. I haven't just I haven't figured it out yet. The logistics are are like, what do I do with the suitcase? It's it's hard. we'll figure this all out later. I gotta do the walk first. but I'm gonna do the settle and Carlisle line and then I'll head to York where I'm booked for three nights. So I stayed in York.

For when we did Land's End to John o'Groats we stayed there for one night. It was not enough to do the city of York. but I loved York, so I've been wanting to go back there. And when I went to Britain in twenty twenty two for my first post pandemic trip, I was gonna s spend a few days in York and then we had to cancel it and it was a big thing. So finally gonna do that's four days in York. So I I'm not gonna but I'm not gonna spend all of it in the city of York. So

I want to see more of Yorkshire because I've I've watched lots of TV shows about Yorkshire. I'm a huge fan of all creatures great and small. So gonna do gonna do a little mini break in Yorkshire. And so the so I'll head to York and I'm gonna do the National Railway Museum, which I didn't get to do last time and Mrs. Angletope has no interest in. So I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of the railway museum. then the next day I have a nice itinerary plan to do a basically my own bespoke walking tour of York.

See the things I want to see, see the railway museum, do the city walls, see some of the museums, and just kind of enjoy a day in York. because the day we stayed last time was too short and it rained. So we had to stay inside and we had to get in the car and go. So drive to Scotland, which was amazing. But yeah, anyway. So then we'll do a day in York and then the next day, so you may remember if you're a longtime listener to the podcast.

I had Tim Barber on the show earlier this spring. He's he's a guide, a tour guide in Yorkshire who takes people out on bespoke tours of Yorkshire. And he after we interviewed, he kindly agreed to take me out for the day. So we are going to explore the beautiful countryside of Yorkshire.

I'm going to visit Castle Howard, which have kindly provided a press pass for me. I have never been to Castle Howard, and this has been at the top of my list of places I've really wanted to visit, but I've never been able to because Yorkshire is harder to get to from London than a lot of other places. And getting to Castle Howard, which is in the middle of nowhere, is even harder. But thanks to Tim, he's gonna drive me right there. And he's an expert on these things. He's gonna be my tour guide.

And we're gonna do Yorkshire, then we're gonna go see a ruined abbey. We're gonna visit a beautiful town, see the York North Yorkshire moors. It's gonna be a great day out. super excited. Originally had my wife was supposed to be there for this tour, but it's just gonna be me now. so I it's gonna be a lot of fun. So then the next day I will take the train from York down to London and I'm gonna finish the trip in London. And so

I have a bunch of things booked.

I'm actually not staying in a hotel So I'm going down to London, I'm staying with a friend.

And so I have a few things planned for London. the big thing is

I've arranged an interview/slash tour of Emery Walker's house, which is this beautiful period house preserved nearby near Hammersmith. And they're gonna give me a tour, and then they've kindly consented to let me record next month's What's On in London podcast while I'm there. So that's gonna be something I've never done before and something really cool. I'm gonna spend some time in London vis doing my favorite things. I do have some things booked.

I'm gonna do the ceremony of the keys. I talked about this in the What's On in London podcast earlier a few weeks ago. It's one of the world's oldest military ceremony, and I've been dying to do this for years, and so I'm finally gonna do it. I'm booked into that. I think I'm booked into the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Tape Modern. I wanted to try and fit in the Whistler exhibition at Tate Britain. I want to see the Star Trek exhibition at the Science Museum.

there's no way I'm gonna be able to do all of this. There's one me and I yeah, who knows. and then I'm gonna be meeting some business, I have some business meetings set up. and then Saturday is two big things that I actually booked months ago. I'm gonna be touring the Buckingham Palace State Room. So for those that don't know, Buckingham Palace is only open two months of the year, in August and September and a little bit of July. and I

I'm super pumped. I'm doing the stateroom tour, but I'm also doing the tour of the East Wing, which is recently renovated. So I'm gonna spend all morning at Buckingham Palace. Cannot wait. never been there, never seen the state rooms. So really looking forward to that. again, I was supposed to do that with my wife. instead I'm doing it by myself, maybe with one of my friends in London. We'll see. And then in the afternoon I am doing a the the Churchill exhibition at the Wallace Collection. I've been

been waiting for this for months. I booked the tickets months ago. Cannot wait to do this. and then and then in the evenings gonna have a little celebratory Anglotopia dinner where a few of the columnists who work for Anglotopia are we're gonna gather in London and we're gonna have a nice dinner. and we're gonna talk about all things in Anglotopia. So really looking forward to that because well one of them I met in person once before a long time ago. The other one I haven't met in person. So I'm looking forward to

Meeting these people. and then the next day I I leave and come home. And I'm sure by then my wife will be quite ready for me to have come home. Unfortunately, I'm gonna miss a couple things. the the press view of the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition is the next Monday. So I'm gonna miss that, which sucks, but I cannot spend three weeks in England.

I'm gonna miss the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition and a few other exhibitions that start in September, but I mean I can't do everything. but if you've been listening to the podcast, you will know that I we should be back in Britain in February briefly. So I can hopefully pick up a few of the things I was not able to do this time, like the Bayeux Tapestry. So so that's where we are.

A year ago I didn't know this was happening, and now it is, and it's been a long road, a lot of work to get here. it doesn't quite feel real. I'm super excited. I mean, everybody's been very supportive, especially my wife. I must single out my wife, Jacqueline Thomas, also known as Mrs. Anglotopia. She really pushed me to do this and has been really encouraging and is

Is at least pretending to be okay with me leaving for two for two and a half weeks. So thank you, honey. I know you're probably even too busy to listen to this and won't hear this, but thank you for for talking to me a year ago and making me realize I needed to make some changes and needed to do this because I have been a the happiest I've ever been and I haven't even gone on the walk yet. So we've got a long journey ahead.

I've got to get to England first. I've got to fly 4,000 miles. and then I will do what I've been telling people. I'm walking across England as the Romans did. and I want to thank everybody from Macs Adventure to to Splash Maps to anybody else who has been involved in the planning of this trip. I'll give you a thanks in advance. I already thanked my wife. and I, you know.

If you've got something big you want to do, do it. You can just do things. So get on with it. so the next time you hear from me, I will either be on the wall or I will be back. So with more stories and more content to share, then you can shake a walking stick at, which I'm a little bummed. I can't take my walking stick, it's too big. if you want to follow along as closely as possible.

please join the Friends of Anglotopia Club. They are going to get everything first. The link is in the show notes. like I said, we've set up a Hadrian's Wall hub on the main Anglotopia website. The link again is in the show notes that will gather together all the content that's going to be going out. There's little progress tracker where you can see my progress along the wall. And then when we start posting things on social media, they're gonna get pulled into that page. So

If you're not into social media, you can still see the posts on the page. It'll have all the podcasts, it'll have all the articles, it'll have everything eventually right there. and it will have link links to the sponsors who have made this possible. And also the Friends of Anglotopia have made this possible because writing about this and and and keeping track of the training and everything has made this happen. So wish me luck, wish my feet luck.

and I will see you all in a few weeks. I will see you on the other side of the wall. Thank you.