The Rested Crossing

Travel at whatever hour suits and settle in near the trail's eastern end. If you're in by mid-afternoon, Newcastle rewards a wander, the quayside bridges you'll walk beneath tomorrow, and Segedunum fort at Wallsend if you want the museum without eating into day one.

Your route pack is at the B&B. Lay out tomorrow's kit, eat well, sleep long.

The crossing begins at Segedunum and follows the Tyne through the city on easy surfaced paths, under the bridges, past the quayside, out through Newburn and up into the first fields. It's the least dramatic day of the week and the perfect warm-up.

Heddon-on-the-Wall delivers the first substantial piece of standing wall as a promise of things to come.

A green, open day beside the Military Road, reading the ditch and vallum in the fields as the lowlands slowly rise. Portgate, where the Roman road to Scotland crossed the wall, marks the halfway point in spirit if not precisely in miles.

The descent to the North Tyne ends at Chollerford; Chesters, the country's best-preserved cavalry fort, waits by the river with its famous bathhouse.

The climb to the moors, then Sewingshields and the start of the crags: the wall riding the cliff line, Housesteads fort astride the path, Milecastle 37's arch, Crag Lough below, and the site of Sycamore Gap. This is the walking that fills every photograph of the trail.

Once Brewed at the day's end has The Sill visitor centre and the Twice Brewed Inn, both institutions in their own way.

The shortest walking day gives the western crags room to breathe: Winshield's summit, Cawfields above its quarry lake, Walltown's magnificent stretch, then a drop past Thirlwall Castle into Gilsland with the afternoon spare.

A short day here is deliberate, it sits between the big climbing of day three and the long haul of day five, and it lets you arrive at Gilsland with legs intact for what follows.

The crossing's longest day, and the reason the arrival night pays off, you meet it fresher than a six-day walker would. Birdoswald fort above the Irthing gorge is the last of the big archaeology; after it the wall goes underground and the walking becomes a long, low march through Cumbrian pasture and lanes to the Eden.

The river leads you into Carlisle through Rickerby Park. Take the city gently tonight; its castle, cathedral and Tullie House Roman gallery keep until morning.

Out along the Eden and onto the Solway Plain, huge skies, saltmarsh, Scotland across the water. Burgh-by-Sands passes mid-stage, and the estuary road carries you to the little pavilion at Bowness-on-Solway where the wall, and your crossing, end.

And here's this itinerary's quiet luxury: you're not going anywhere tonight. Sign the finishers' book at the King's Arms, eat, and sleep by the Solway.

Breakfast without a bus timetable propped against the teapot. The morning connection runs via Carlisle, bus or pre-booked taxi to the station, then the rail network home. Full options are in your pack, and unlike every walker who finished yesterday afternoon, you're doing this bit fresh.