Today the boys set off to climb the crags without me. Last night my sciatic woke me at 2 to say hello, and since today is a lot of up and down, I decided to not be a liability and take the bus to Haltwhistle (centre of England!). The boys will climb much faster today without me. Yesterday we saw many sections of the wall, weirdly intact after all these years. It’s hard to believe the Romans created something so solid.
We dined at the Greenhead Hotel last night – tried a bite of haggis. Michael tried Keith’s black pudding (don’t ask, look it up if you must) and was pleasantly surprised. There was vegetarian menus as well, and we are finding many places serving alternate menus.
It was too cloudy to spot any meteors when I was up last night, and the rain was quite heavy early on, though there’s sunshine now. The weather does seem to change every fifteen minutes.
I’ve managed to find a pharmacy – codeine is my friend – and even got on the right bus to the Old Repeater Station. This tiny little place in the middle of the hills was used to repeat a telephone signal back in the fifties. It holds 12 guests.
I can see the ridge of the escarpment from the windows here and am waiting for the boys. They were supposed to stop at Housesteads, a Roman museum.

We walked along the wall more today, passing through Gisland and Birdoswald. We are siting in an apartment in Greenhead. It’s a youth hostel but we have a place big enough for Keith and us all. They have a Greenhead Hotel (yes, that’s my first pub) and what seems to be nice restaurant in back. They have vegetarian fare so we have been lucky with the two for two as we travel on the Wall.
We saw many bits of the Roman wall today, lots of massive stone walls – left over foundation outlines and a few watchtower ruins. The weather has been changing form moment to moment but we have managed to dodge the worst of it. It does look like Newcastle is getting a lot of rain in the next day so tomorrow’s walk may not be so nice.
Our local bartender says she is studying in Durham, just south of Newcastle, and it is a lovely town. We may visit if Newcastle is too wet.
I think by the end of this walk the kids would prefer to hole up in the hotel room for a day or so.

Our first day walking. My feet and back are sore. Michael is doing well and the boys walk with little complaint, though chocolate seems to help them along the trail. We are walking 4 days instead of 3 – we could’t get accommodation for the nights we needed.
Alice, very wisely, stayed back in Dunipace.
We are staying at Sandysykes, a working farm B&B. My boys are in the “bunkhouse” and I am staying in the house. The house is lovely, the owners made a wonderful supper and we are trying out the local brew: Brampton Bitter. There are four very young puppies all curled up in the barn, and we were chased back to the house by two skittery calves. We figure they want in the bunkhouse where a fire is roaring in the place – much warmer than the barn.