(H)ADRIAN'S WALL (10/08/09)

HADRIAN'S WALL........Drove from North Yorkshire to Northumberland on Sunday. stopped en route to download a stack of posts, the dongle worked, Whoopee! Too early for celebrations, Windows Explorer decided to throw a moody, a couple of long winded re boots and still no luck so thought beggar it and resumed my wanderings. Eventually found a camp site adjacent to the village of Acomb about two miles north of Hexham and a couple south of Hadrian's Wall.

This place used to be an old lead mine, hopefully there will be more to follow on that vein. All that obviously remains are spoil heaps, all populated with Silver Birch.

Having survived six decades without ever having set eyes on the northern border of the Roman Empire I was understandably full of anticipation. Lying in bed, lying one way, lying the other way, getting up for a tiddle, tried lying on my back. Had a glass of milk, damned ridiculous, it's been there for two thousand years it surely will still be there in six hours.

Eventually, dawn arrived accompanied by driving rain, Ho Hum! Set off in that misty drizzle, cunning stuff, it appears to be barely raining but one is soaked after a minutes exposure. With the exception of a minor altercation with a couple of young beasts an hours pleasant walk brought us to the WALL. Damn near missed it, could have built this myself in a week. Of course what has happened is that as soon as the Romans departed south the indigenous population promptly converted all that stone into dwellings for man, for beast and walls to contain the latter.

OVERWHELMED..........We've been on some daft expeditions but this takes the Bonio. I consulted the map and a mile or so to the west remains of a Roman bridge were marked. Better give it a whirl see if we can get a picture or two worthy of the effort expended and your indulgence.

CHOLLERFORD BRIDGE........This is the present crossing of the North Tyne, still single track so maybe the Romans didn't leave enough stone lying about.

CHESTERS BRIDGE.......Section of wall leading to the remains of the bridge, this is better, worth coming for.

GATEHOUSE AND BRIDGE PIER.......The little slots in the stones are presumably for lifting them into position. They vary a bit in size, the largest are about half a cubic meter so will weigh roughly half a tonne. Surprised the locals had the energy to be revolting after shifting these. Still child's play compared to Henge construction.

GATEHOUSE.....More than likely it had a posh word in Latin..Gatrium?

COLUMN....or some of it.

PILE OF SPARE STONE?.......Stonium or possibly dumpium.

CHESTERS FORT.....this looks much more interesting, it appeared to involve another three miles walk and I was wet enough for one day. Plus people were starting to appear.

CHOLLERFORD WIER......I imagine this would be good on a nice day the feature in the middle is a fish ladder. The lower reaches of the Tyne must have improved if any salmon make it this far. Not a bad day out, a lot of processing to get anything remotely decent. HDR, burning, graduated filters and that blasted tripod I'm sure it gets heavier, must be constructed from hydroscopic aluminium! I know I'm getting a bad case of tripophobia.