Hadrian's Wall - where did my nose go?

I am writing this blog in the car park of Hadrian’s Wall Hallstead another part of the wall. You may ask yourself what is Deb doing at 2.30pm typing a diary entry when she should be out exploring the wall? Let me paint you a picture. The temperature gauge on the car states 9 degrees unfortunately it doesn’t tell you the wind chill factor or the speed of the wind. I am guess 1 degree or less for wind chill and at least 50km hour winds however this may vary from 50 to 70 when the wind picks up.

Before you call me a baby I would like to mention that I had already spent over 2 hours at the beginning of the wall and fort, hiked through paddocks of sheep shit, which I might add was freshly made just for me, and battled to stay upright while I walked along part of the wall, yes I did climb up no rails or stairs and walk along part of the wall until I was nearly blown off!! My beanie would not stay on it was that windy and I had lost all feeling in my face and nose. I could only imagine what my hair looked like (how interesting I have a guy walking past my car in the freezing wind playing a guitar!) and now I realized I had wasted 15 minutes blow drying it dry this morning!


So here I am refusing to get out of the car to look at some more rocks. Tom looked at me despairingly whilst I said that I will just look at the photos he will take.


It is a 15 minute hard hike uphill, probably with the wind against you for that extra resistance and I bet Tom will be an ice block when he gets back. Unfortunately for him he forgot to unpack his beanie and gloves. I threw him my gloves and his new scarf but for some reason he wouldn’t take my purple beanie! He will be sorry within 2 minutes I am guessing.


As I sit in the warmth (sort off, but wind free) car I look around and see a few sane people doing as I am whilst their various partners brave the elements. Crazy is all I can say, I mean the wind is that bad the car is rocking!!


Right so Tom is off impersonating a block of ice so I will describe what I have seen today.

As we left the hotel we drove through a number of small (and very English) towns. I have been laughing (Some may say unfairly) at the road signs and names of places. Maybe it is my own warped and grotty sense of humor but I have found it amusing none the less!


What I have noticed, apart from all the sheep, is that all the houses are right on the small roads and their door practically opens on the street. No one has screens but I guess they never have them open long enough as it is too cold. I love the bright coloured doors, I think I read somewhere that this was done because of how they all looked alike. I would have a bright red or purple door!


Once again we saw beautiful lush green country side dotted with many sheep and their babies…too cute but I couldn’t help thinking when they would end up as veal in the butcher shop. Call me ignorant but I did not know that Britain had so many sheep. I knew that had sheep but they HAVE LOTS.


We followed Holly’s instructions (we have named our sat nav voice Holly from Red Dwarf) and arrived at Hadrian’s Wall.


Now for all of you who are unaware of Roman history. Hadrian ruled the Roman Empire and as they had claimed land in Britain all the way back to Rome he had a huge wall built to clarify the boundaries. If you could see this wall in its hay day it would have been very impressive! So off we walked (or should I say struggled to walk in the wind) and checked out the ruins of the fort and part of the wall. It was over 120km in length and took 7 years to build. I am unsure how much of it is left but it pales in height to what it used to be. I got in trouble off Tom comparing it to the many kilometers of stone fencing you see zig sagging across the countryside!


That is another thing I am in awe off. The long stretching stone walls that run this way and that across the mountains and land outlining where one paddock or property begins and ends. A very permanent mark of territory. It is very impressive and I would have to research to see how old these stone walls are and who made them? I know farmers would have done so but there is so much for me not to think slavery was not involved somehow. As you stare up at the mammoth mountains you can see large deposits of rock that have been brought down the mountains and hills from snow and rain over the years. At least they wouldn’t have had to mine the land for these stones.


We walked through paddocks where sheep were trying to keep warm as well. A bright green field dotted with fluffy sheep with the wall ruins as a backdrop was grand sight, if only the spray paint on the sheep wasn’t present you could imagine you were back in time…
20min has gone past and still no sign of Tom as yet. Maybe he was blown away?

Seeing remains of the Romans that have been dug up and seeing that they have been dated to 200AD makes you think ‘crap this stuff is old and it has lasted’ with at risk of sounding like my grandparents I will add they don’t make things like that anymore. It does blow your mind to some degree given how young our own country is.


Once Tom returns and thaws out we are off to York. We will be there for 3 days I think?

It was over 2 hours before Tom returned. I was right. He was pretty much blue and frozen but I did get s sheepish ‘thank you’ for throwing the gloves at him as he left.

Tom description of the wall included many adjectives and synonyms for the word ‘big’ and ‘impressive’. He seemed happy in a chilly way as he cranked the cars heater up to high. I was glad of the decision I made to stay in the car.

We continued our road trip as we had a LONG way to drive to get to York.


As we motored we saw many beautiful landscapes that demanded to be painted. Lots of tiny houses dotting the main roads in townships - easily mistaken for shops. Imagine driving down the main road of Newcastle back home and where the shops are, every second building houses units and small homes. I cannot get over the concept of how the front doors open onto the roads and footpaths!


As we continued our big drive we came across fields filled with wind farms - oh now I get it that is why it has been so cold! Someone left the fans on!!


The sky continued to darken and the rain fell heavy. Cold, gray and dark it was a postcard of a typical English day. It was FREEZING!!!


We finally arrived in York, dodged some rather large geese and their little babies crossing the road and found our hotel - hotel 53 and booked in.

We had arrived! Hello York!

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Part of trip: Living The Dream

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