Housesteads is a nightmare for sore feet. It looks a little daunting from the road as it is obviously some distance away. When we got off the bus in a huge car park (they are expecting a LOT of people), there is a nice little cluster of buildings- a loo, a take away cafe and a shop. Then there is an archway through the buildings with a wood just in front of you, so you can't see what's coming until you've walked about 10 yards around the end of the wood and then the full horror of what the feet are about to experience was unfolded. It was a deep valley with a steep not very winding road down and an equally steep road going up the other side to the ticket office perched 2/3rds of the way up the hill, and the fort on the top.I can understand why the ticket office is there and not with the other buildings. Can you imagine how many people would want their money back?
It 
was interesting when we got there, took seven minutes brisk walking but at the back of your mind as you are admiring the granaries and the laterines is the fact you will have to walk back. But walk back we did. You can see the path back in the photo above to the left of Lucy's head and the carefully placed wood. We waited for the bus in the very spacious car park and when it came asked the driver to put us off at the bottom of the lane for Green Carts. He forgot to stop. Luckily Lucy had seen the sign and rang the bell, but we had overshot by a couple of hundred yards. He dropped us off at Black Carts in
stead which was handy as we walked back along a fairly well preserved section of wall to get to the lane to Green Carts. It was a good walk, some of it on a farm track that if you hadn't already been covered in mud before was guaranteed to give you a liberal coating by the time you reached the farm. Overall we had only walked 3 miles today and now we are sat in a freezing in a barn where you can see daylight through the walls. It is only 8pm and tonight we aren't tired, but there is NOTHING to do and NOWHERE to go for miles. It's cold and we are both a bit FED UP. But tomorrow we aim to hit Vindolanda.
was interesting when we got there, took seven minutes brisk walking but at the back of your mind as you are admiring the granaries and the laterines is the fact you will have to walk back. But walk back we did. You can see the path back in the photo above to the left of Lucy's head and the carefully placed wood. We waited for the bus in the very spacious car park and when it came asked the driver to put us off at the bottom of the lane for Green Carts. He forgot to stop. Luckily Lucy had seen the sign and rang the bell, but we had overshot by a couple of hundred yards. He dropped us off at Black Carts instead which was handy as we walked back along a fairly well preserved section of wall to get to the lane to Green Carts. It was a good walk, some of it on a farm track that if you hadn't already been covered in mud before was guaranteed to give you a liberal coating by the time you reached the farm. Overall we had only walked 3 miles today and now we are sat in a freezing in a barn where you can see daylight through the walls. It is only 8pm and tonight we aren't tired, but there is NOTHING to do and NOWHERE to go for miles. It's cold and we are both a bit FED UP. But tomorrow we aim to hit Vindolanda.
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