Hadrian's Wall, part 2

As you might have been able to tell from my previous post, I was very interested in the industrial archaeology and not sure that I would be interested in the Roman stuff, and I tried to be interested by reading a novel set in Roman times, "Island of Ghosts". It was about a Prince of nomadic tribespeople from East of the Danube, who has come off the worst in a war with the Romans, and has been forced to take hundreds of his kinsmen to be of service to the Romans. He is a leader, but here he is leading them into servitude, and he is therefore a man riven by guilt, and also by grief, as his wife and children have been killed quite horribly by the Romans. They are sent across the sea (which they have never seen before) to keep order in the North of England, in short, on the wall. Of course, their loyalties are divided as in many ways they have more in common with the Britannic tribes. So there is quite a bit of conflict and drama, but in one place I was thinking, oh, how this goes on and on! So, not quite snappy enough. But the writer, Gillian Bradshaw, did her research and it was excellent from that point of view. I had other Roman books to read (books with a Roman setting) but sadly I broke my Kindle, I don't know how, and the screen is half screen-saver; half good. But that's no good! I have Googled the problem and tried the remedies but none of them work.

After Heddon-on-the-Wall, where we joined in the local pub quiz, but the team with our landlady (the farmer's wife) in won, we walked to Corbridge, which had a Roman camp that was very important, called Corstopitum.  I remember the weather was fine and not too hot, and the going was fairly level, and we looked at the wildflowers a lot as our walk went from the ditch to the road and back. A man called Wade had come along and knocked down Hadrian's wall and used it for hard core for his Military Road, which is a fine road if you like roads. The walk went well until the turn off, and there was a small castle and a lovely little church to see, but as we walked past the ford I felt very tired, and of course I was carrying my backpack. I slowed down considerably and found it tough until we got to our B&B at Corbridge, and for some reason we had to walk around the village in the rain that evening, in search of the Roman Camp, but we should have saved it until the morning. 

There were some lovely things in the museum, like this good statue of a sheep with a tiny lion, and a relief of a sun god.

There were plenty of drainage channels and so forth in the Roman camp at Corbridge. 

On that day we saw the Tyne again, and it was beautiful. 

We also went to the even bigger Roman camp at Chesters, and so they blended into one. 

We went to the pub for a meal before we went to the farm where we were going to sleep, so we walked until half past eight. But we were in good spirits after a meal.

Then we walked on to Chollerford, where there was a camping barn, and we met with some Americans, father and son, who improved my life considerably by saying they sent on their baggage every night by using a company called Walkers' bags, who performed this wonderful service. That night I couldn't sleep because the bed was so terrible, and it was a bunk room with other people (the Americans) so I felt very embarrassed by my noisy discomfort. I used my phone to read my Kindle book. I felt very cheered by not having to carry anything as we set off the next day. The Amercans told us the walk was going to get tougher, and we would be out in the National park without benefit of tea or toilets.