My Watch Begins: A Journey Along Hadrian’s Wall
In 2022, me, my wife Vasiliki, and for part of the way our friends Els and Harry, set out to walk the Hadrian’s Wall Path. From Heddon-on-the-Wall to Bowness-on-Solway, 115 km across England east coast to west coast, step by step.
It was my first long-distance hike after Covid, and on day one we both felt so rusty. To make things even more interesting, I managed to sprain my ankle right at the start. Classic trail life nothing ever goes perfectly, and that’s half the charm. As I kept reminding myself:
“You missed this kinda thing, you wanted it, now breathe in the fresh air, the freedom… and the pain.”
What really took me by surprise was the Wall itself. Before getting there, I honestly thought it would just be scattered remains, stones here and there. But no, there are parts where the actual wall still stands, stretching for miles. Walking beside it, I kept catching myself thinking of what life must have been like when it was being built, and later, when it was in use.
We were all Game of Thrones fans (not the final season, anyway), and we joked about it along the way. When things got hard or the weather changed, I would just think:
“MY WATCH BEGINS.” Somehow, the epicness of it all lifted me.
The British countryside added its own magic, farmland, marshes, rolling hills and then, of course, the iconic Sycamore Gap, which I was extremely happy to visit. The tree was featured in one of my dad’s favorite movies, one I had watched on VHS a thousand times: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. You can imagine my excitement… and also the sadness of the events that followed only a year later, when two (sorry for the language) idiots chopped the famous tree down. Having said that, the pub just down by the road from the tree is awesome, good food, good beer, worth a visit.
The weather had its moods. One day nothing but rain and wind, the next sunshine and calm. I actually missed that exposure to the elements, it slows you down, but it makes you feel alive in a way that’s hard to explain. But the slow down isn’t just because of the elements. It happens because you ‘abandon’ normal life when hiking. It’s a different rhythm, away from the constant noise of daily life, driving, emails, social media, the endless saturation of information. It’s just you and a walk. A long, long walk.
Walking by the Wall for five days also gave me time to picture it in its prime: 4 meters high, towers and garrisons every 1.5 km, built in just a decade.
“It’s insane to think this line of stone once stood as the edge of an empire.”
By the time we reached the sea at Bowness-on-Solway, it hit me: we had walked from coast to coast. From east to west. Across England. A beer at the end never felt so well deserved.
I’m still processing the experience so many years later. There’s something about long-distance trails or any stretch of time fully spent in nature, that shifts you, even one as small as this.
“It alters your DNA a little bit.”
And maybe that’s why I keep seeking out these walks: they change me, in ways that stick. Can’t wait for the next adventure. Let’s see what life has in store for us.
