Wednesday 8th July- Vindolanda

Frozen most of the night. Could see the sky when I looked up, peeping in through the spiders webs. Lucy has woken up covered in bites. I woke up every time I turned over so I could pull the covers around myself again. However apart from the cold and dirt it was pretty good. All the other people staying in the camping barn were female, so no problems with getting changed, it was only £10, the sleeping bags, clean pillow slips and towels were provided, there was a microwave and a toaster and tea, coffee and milk. And this morning breakfast was great. We had said we just wanted toast, but for four people there was individual packets of cereal, a good choice, 1 litre of milk, 4 yoghurts, 4 bananas, a loaf of bread, butter, grapes, plums, and pears and we didn't have to wash up either.

I had got up at 6.30am and got washed and dressed, (there was cleaning stuff in the washrooms, so you didn't have to get washed in a dirty sink!) and led on the bed to read but it was so cold I got back under the covers and fell asleep until 7.15. Breakfast came on a tray delivered by our hostess. I thought we would have to pay extra for the breakfast, but no, it was included. If we had taken sleeping bags I would have been tempted to stay here and take the bus, but we hadn't and the ones provided were too thin for the cold weather we were having.

We were out and walking by 8.30, back down the lane we came up yesterday, we had 25 minutes to wait for the bus, so, just so my feet didn't get used to a life of Riley, we set off to walk a little way. At the bottom of the lane before we hit the road we went over a ladder stile into the field on the right and followed a sustantial bit of wall around 'limestone corner'. This is the most northerly point of the wall and there are huge peices of cut limestone there that the romans never used for some reason. It has caused speculation for years but no-one will ever know why these bits were rejected.

We rejoined the road in time for the bus. Some of the women we had camped with last night had told us of another camping barn at Winshields Farm near Twice Brewed, we thought we would phone them and stay there for a couple of nights. In the meantime we were off to Vindolanda. The bus dropped us off in the car park at about 9.40am. There were 2 other people waiting there, it opened at 10am. We spent some time wandering around the place and I found half a rabbit with the organs carefully removed and left tidily beside the corpse. It looked like some kind of satanic ritual. I mentioned it to the receptionist when I bought the tickets and they blamed the cat at the farm next door. I'm not so sure myself.

It was slightly more expensive at Vindolana as it is the first property we have been to not owned by English Heritage, although they do manage the fort on site. It was £10.45, which included a donation and gift aid. We didn't buy a guide book because we have been here a few times before. Lucy doesn't remember so it must be some time ago. The ticket office was in a reconstructed roman villa. It was very nice, I'd have lived there if I could afford a house like that!

The visit was pretty good, lots of chaps picking away at the ground in an un- enthusiastic manner, mainly due I'm sure to the frigid temperatures and the biting wind. Me and Lucy ran around a bit with sticky plants to get warm and all the diggers went for a tea break after being grilled by a teacher showing off to a group of mainly bored teenagers. We spent 10 minutes observing the new excavations and pretending to be Tony Robinson. We then pottered off to look at the older stuff and admired lots of drains and hypercausts. Finally we toddled off down the hill to the museum and shop and had lunch. It was £14 for lunch and it was good. Recommended. I also spent £25 in the shop on books I would have to carry. Madness! I already struggle with the elephant , sorry rucksack, I carry around now never mind another ton of books! The museum was very good too. It had grown from the last time we had visited, mainly due to the extraordinary amount of finds that had been turned up on the site.

Later we went into the fort and saw the recent excavations there and watched a mason making good the remains for permenant display. Very interesting.

By now we were both feeling pretty roman-ed out so we went and played on the reconstructed wall sections. They are very high. The turf section is starting to deteriorate now, but we had to move because the children on school trips wanted to play too. Lucy remembered playing on them before, so she had been previously. She had thought she had no memory of the place.

We went and waited for the 14.30 bus at the car park, we were off to Haltwistle. We had booked in at the camping barn at Winshields Farm. They do not supply sleeping bags but had kindly said they would lend us some, we were going to Haltwistle to buy in some food. It was a very nice bus ride in to town but when we got there it was half day closing.