We woke up this morning, in our two single beds, in the loft of the 150 year old farmhouse to see snow on the ground….how exciting! I rushed downstairs and raced outside to take some photos. The ANIMAL was covered in snow! It was awesome…..I was like a kid in a candy shop…..I love snow! After breakfast we packed the bike got dressed in our wet-weather gear and Vince let some air out of the tyres before carefully getting the bike back down the hill to the road…I chose to walk down as we were both concerned due to the boggy nature of the land, as well as the increased challenge of the snow and ice. Once safely at the bottom, I mounted and we rode into Falstone where Vince got out the 12v compressor to pump up the tyres…all a bit of a mission but very necessary. We went to Chesters Fort – a Roman fort and bath house on the River Tyne (inc a small section of Hadrian’s Wall) not too far away and we had a good look at that. Then we rode a few miles further west and stopped at Housestead’s Fort and had a good look around that – which included a long walk (about a mile and a half) up a very, very, very steep hill from carpark to the ruins…. that was hard work with all our riding and wet weather gear on…at one point I thought I might have a heart attack! We then watched a short video on the history of Housestead’s Fort and Hadrian’s Wall before inspecting the ruins. We walked further up the hill to the actual section of Hadrian’s Wall that you can walk on….amazing….we came …we saw….we conquered!!! The weather deteriorated further when we left there and the wind had picked up making riding quite unpleasant and dangerous…I had to press my weight down on the left peg and lean over to help Vince keep the bike upright against the cross wind…..so we revised our plans, which were to go to Greenock……and just aimed to get to Gretna Green for the night instead. We were welcomed into Scotland after 1503km in England to hail, gales and freezing cold! Welcome HOME Karen!
