Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

Later, I creep down creaking stairs wrapped in a blanket and sit on an iron bench
in the garden gazing up at the Milky Way’s array splashed overhead.
Northumberland National Park is a designated dark-sky preserve, and when the
clouds part here, the night sky does not disappoint.
© Gannet77 | Getty
putting boot to turf at Milecastle 39, or Castle Nick
It is a strange and wondrous thing to experience a city for the first time by
walking into it on foot. Days eight and nine of this walk offer a fascinating, if not
jarring, re-entry into urban life, watching the sprawl of Newcastle-upon-Tyne unfold
house by house and suburban street by suburban street. The rolling farmland
around East Wallhouses gives way to scattered stone villages. The path dips down
next to the River Tyne, you start counting the seven bridges that span the river here,
and suddenly you are surrounded by zooming cars and hurried workers and hip
restaurants. A step-by-step study in human evolution.
THE VALLUM
Along several portions of the trail, the Vallum is the only evidence of the wall’s