Part of the therapeutic approach at North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) in Bangor is to engage residents at Penryhn House in walks in the countryside, in part to connect with nature. Each September (Recovery Month), residents take part in a walk (generally on coastal pathways in Wales) or other outside activities over the course of a week.
The first such walk planned for residents by James Deakin, Founder of NWRC, was a walk along the length of Hadrian’s Wall in 2016. Here is a description of that walk, which I have written for the book I am writing on Recovery in North Wales.
‘James emphasises that it is not just about inspiring new members to NWRC, but also have them aspire to achieving something positive. Someone can be inspired, but that desire can disappear fairly quickly. However, if you then aspire to something—‘I want that, I really want that.’—then the desire becomes more tangible, more ‘sticky.’
In 2016, James decided to create a real challenge for the residents of Penrhyn House during the National Recovery Month of September. He arranged for them, along with some staff members, to walk the length of Hadrian’s Wall over five days. The idea in conducting this expedition was two-fold. Firstly, to give the Penryhn residents an occasion where they would go way beyond anything they thought they could achieve. Where they would experience, and overcome, extreme hardship. Secondly, to challenge the stigmatisation of people with substance use problems in society, the ideas that circulate, one being ‘once an addict, always an addict.’ To show that people have not only overcome an addiction and gotten well, but are also capable of completing other serious challenges, such as this walk.
This event still gives James horrors when he thinks about it, since it turned out to be hardest week of his working life. At the time, he had no real idea of how much he was trying to bite off. He’s not very good at delegating, so he set out to cook and prepare three meals a day for twenty people. He was up at five in the morning to prepare packed lunches and get things ready for breakfast, walked around twenty miles a day for five days, and then went to bed around 01.00 very night.
A bunkhouse had been booked for six nights which was located close to the middle of Hadrian’s Wall as it stretched across Northern England. A van delivered the food and everybody’s belongings early on the first day. The idea was, apart from that first day, that everyone would travel in NWRC’s mini bus to the start of the walk for the day. The mini-bus would then pick up the weary travellers at the end of the day’s walk and take them back to the bunkhouse. On the first day, the mini-bus delivered the NWRC travellers to the start of the Wall at Bowness-on-Solway.
When they arrived at the bunkhouse on the first day, the group discovered there was no proper kitchen. James pointed out to the owner that the advertisement claimed there were cooking facilities. The owner argued that such facilities were provided—a toaster, microwave and a kettle. When James emphasised that these items weren’t enough for their 20-person group, the owner pointed to a three-sided lean-to shack in the garden, in which there was a two-ring camping stove, covered in rust and cobwebs, wired up to a bottle of gas. This would have to do. There was also no running water and nowhere to sit. The owner gave them some plastic collapsible tables. Fortunately, the weather was wonderful during the week. Every morning, the group sat on the grass eating porridge, croissants and other items, staring out in bright sunshine at the most sublime of views down into the valley.
As James had never done anything like this walk, he had looked around for someone he knew who had done long-distance walking before. He remembered that good friend Kim Davies, who worked in the addiction field, had walked the Pennine Way. He asked if she would like to come along and she agreed. Three hours into the first day of the walk, with temperatures rising above 30 degrees, James began to worry that they had bitten off more than they could chew. He decided to ask Kim what she thought. She replied, ‘We’re all right… Hang on a minute, I don’t feel too clever.’ She then fainted and fell to the ground. James started to panic, his most experienced walker down-and-out on the first morning! As it turned out, Kim came around quickly and walked every step of the way to the finishing line on each day.
The walk took place in a stunningly beautiful part of the world. The group marched on, adorned in their NWRC t-shirts which were specially designed for the occasion, and carrying a large NWRC banner. Everyone was physically and mentally exhausted by the end of each day, the level of exhaustion increasing as the journey progressed over days. They had all given so much and nobody would begrudge them if they gave up, but their friends weren’t giving up. So they kept going. As James points out, the other participants are like a barometer; the person thinks, ‘If they aren’t giving up, I’m not giving up.’ He likens the situation to the recovery journey and to what goes on in recovery communities and mutual aid groups. The support and encouragement of others in the community helps a person keep on going with their recovery journey.
The end of the walk at Wallsend was sadly an anti-climax. The group arrived on a beautiful sunny day to find burnt out cars, wheelie bins, and dog shit covering the ground. The minibus arrived and someone turned on the radio. One of James’s favourite songs rang out, Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. The group just sat there, some of them physically destroyed, and enjoyed another sublime occasion. One of the lads had a loose bit of skin on the bottom of his foot. He started to pull on it and the skin across the whole sole came off like a piece of dried leather. He started to giggle, broke out into laughter and then became hysterical. James put his arm around him, at which time the lad started to cry uncontrollably. Everyone in the group was totally exhausted, but also exhilarated by a massive sense of accomplishment.
On the way home, they stopped at a really posh Italian restaurant, which happened to be almost empty. The group staggered through the door, looking wild and exhausted and no doubt stinking. They sat down and ate the most wonderful Italian meal, during which time they told the staff who they were and what they had been doing. The staff were blown away and the owner knocked 50% off the bill. What a wonderful end to an amazing trip!
James believes that a Higher Power had looked after them during the week. He knew that it all could have gone badly wrong. He thinks sometimes that’s the beauty of a recovery community organisation like NWRC. ‘They can sort of fly by the seat of their pants in a way that statutory services can’t because of risk assessments and other restrictive practices.’
NWRC has continued to have a 100-mile walk in September every year, each time along a coastal path in Wales, and always raising money for the NWRC charity. Last year, they spent seven days walking from Porthmadog to Bangor, via the Llŷn Peninsula coastal path. The team at Eternal Media have filmed parts of some of the walks and in 2021 the expedition became an item on BBC News Wales, with Eternal clips being shown (cf. Chapter X).
James makes no apologies to Penrhyn residents about the toughness of their challenge. When they return to Penryhn House, he tells them that the expeditions are designed to help them find out about themselves. They are deliberately designed to be hard work, to break them physically and mentally. He emphasises that as addicts, ‘we run from fear and pain, and give up at the first opportunity.’ The expedition gives the person a reference point in sobriety:
‘…when you’re physically and mentally exhausted and you had nothing left to give, but you kept going. You didn’t crumble, you didn’t give up at the first opportunity. You found some inner strength, and persevered, ploughed on, and pushed through. This is the sort of stuff you need in your recovery, because life isn’t necessarily easy on that journey, and even when you’ve got yourself clean and sober and are in a good place. A lot of bad stuff occurs in today’s world.’
