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Published: August 19th 2019
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Breakfast at Burncrest B&B
18 August 2019, SundayToday I experience the AD122 Hadrian's wall country bus. Visit the newly opened Sill visitors center and gateway to Northumberland National Park. And Vindolanda old Roman fort and archeological site.Having gotten about seven and a half hours sleep, but still suffering a bit of jet lag, I was awake about 4:30 so had about three and a half hours before breakfast. The Burncrest B&B had a wonderful full English breakfast with lime and kiwi yogurt, a banana and then the full breakfast with French press coffee and toast. See photo.Les who is Margaret Ellery's husband was the cook for the breakfast. He spent some time telling me about his experiences as a nuclear chemist for the British government and all of the bomb testing that he was involved with around the world. The house and his office are an absolute museum of items collected from every part of the world that he has lived Africa, Malaysia, Eastern Asia Japan and China. Another couple from Germany was also at the B&B. They are starting their hike on Hadrian's Wall.The Hadrian's Wall country bus, number AD122, leaves hourly from the Hexham bus station After a point six mile walk from
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The geology of Whom Sill
the B&B to the bus station, I had about a 40 minute wait for the next bus. I purchased the senior Rover ticket fare for 9.5 GBP and was able to get on and off the bus at will at any of the stops. To understand the route I made the first trip all the way to the end then back to Hexham. This took almost 2 hours to complete. Looking at the bus schedule and my time I elected to go collect my bags from the Burncrest B&B and come back for the next bus so it could take me to the sill where I could walk easily to the Vallum lodge guest house. This was a short 8 minute walk but on the highway with fairly heavy traffic and absolutely no room to get off the road.Leaving my bags at Vallum i proceeded to walk up to Hadrian's Wall to a point called steel rig and walk along the wall for a distance to see the wall as it climbs up the hill. The Rock here is what's called w h i m s i l l it is a form of very hard volcanic rock. One of the
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1949 Britian's national parks established.
The Sill is headquarters for Northumberland national park. Hadrian's wall runs through southern edge of the park
bus stops is at the Sill which is the headquarters to the Northumberland national Park as well as a landmark on Hadrian's Wall. This proved to be a steep windy rainy walk. But I was able to complete it in about an hour. I caught the AD122 bus to Vindolanda Roman ruins. This fort dates from about 48 BC and was in use for almost 400 years. itIt housed the Garrison of about 1,000 soldiers and their support organizations so the fort is very large. The unique feature of this location is it is the only Roman ruins to contain actual written documents that were written at the time the fort was occupied almost 2,000 years ago that were miraculously preserved. these written items are on wooden tablets which somehow managed to survive between rocks and now has been translated from the Latin into English.So today's walks, while not of any great distance was for more than four and a half miles and with about 300 feet of elevation gain. My dinner was at the twice brewed inn and pub right at the Sill and consisted of a vegetable meatloaf with Yorkshire pudding. See last photo.I will post some pictures
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The roof of the Sill.
Vegetation and soil resemble this region.
Experimenting on what works the best.
of the views along Hadrian's Wall the fort Vindolanda and my breakfast.
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claire Ellery
non-member comment
Burncrest B&B
OMG.. Les Ellery was never a Nuclear Chemist! The man fitted TV aerials for a living, and the rest of the time was a some what mediocre builder. He has never travelled anywhere apart form Majorca (once). No no Les Ellery was a bully and abused his wife & children for years, (Margaret is his second wife). His 1st wife fled from abuse, he then took on another partner and beat her so badly she couldn't stand, wether this was before or after he tried to stick her head in a deep fat fryer I don't recall, as at this point I had ran from the house (Burncrest as its now known) to get help. Yes Im Les Ellery's daughter. My father is many things, certainly none of which you describe above. Go Figure the people you meet while travelling... Oh although he may not have travelled both of his children have, they are well adjusted, intelligent and kind they are also very happy despite him.