Moose and Ink

More like 12+ miles but we did it alongside a wall nearly 2000 years old. Hadrian’s Wall – built by the Romans to define their northernmost borders (and to keep the army busy so they wouldn’t revolt). There isn’t much to say other than it was amazing.

We started off Vindolanda, a Roman fort and village, now one of the best locations to find Roman artifacts. The English climate did an excellent job of preserving items and a lot has been learned from this spot.

After spending the morning touring the place (and making an unforgivable number of sheep jokes), we started off for the wall. We’ve been fortunate to have great weather on this trip (not one day of rain!) so I’m just going to let the photos do the talking beneath the break with a few comments.

A fort at Vindolanda. Kilroydius was here.

The Sycamore Gap made famous in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Trivia – in the movie he says this is only 5 miles from his home. Nottingham is a hell of a lot further south. Robin walked from the Cliffs of Dover, PAST Nottingham, almost reached Scotland, and then must have turned around. But you can’t blame him – he had a 1st generation Tom Tom.

One of the 80 milecastles along the wall.

One of England’s Public Walkways. These criss cross private land all over the countryside. Can you see the path? Yeah, neither could we so we just walked in the general direction the sign told us. And the jerks below weren’t any help.

Dinner at the Milecastle Inn. Venison Casserole in Red Wine and Mushroom sauce for Steph, Wild Boar and Duckling Pie for me.