Hadrians wall- the long and the short of it

On saturday last weekend i went with a group of International students to the nice little town of Corbridge; which is a fair walk to Hadrian's wall.
At 9:30 we boarded the bus and soon green hillsides were taking the place of the bleak industrial landscape of the north country. at 10 we got off the bus and realized that we did to have a very good map of the area so i headed to the nearest petrol station of a survey map; well worth the 1 pound fifty.

The weather was brilliant (about 15 with a strong breese) with blue skies and a rainbow guiding us to our first stop which was not the wall but in a westerly direction; a huge old roman villa ruins. When we got there however it cost 3 pound to get in and being the thrifty students that we are; we decided to continue. It was a good walk and by 12 we had reached the halfway point crossing some great country side and nearly walking into a bulls paddock (one of our party was wearing a bright red jacket so we could of had a decoy) and many other adventures. By 1pm we go to an abby and stopped for a picnic of bread, cheese, apples, raspberries and batturnburg cake (jasper fford readers take note) now from the abby we could etither do another 3 hours of walking on a nice hike back to Corbridge or try for a 5 hour hike to the wall and back. Now in answer to this conundrum the skies suddenly over cast, the wind picked up and it started to rain- just like traditional English weather. Hence we chose the shorter of the two and headed back over hills and thought a great little forest in which the path had turned to mud.

An amusing event on the walk back was with the rain pelting all around we were talking about life and some how we got on to the subject of tango. Saara(the aforementioned Finnish girl in the red jacket) and I both do this at the Newcastle Uni Tango society, and some how we were asked/ made to show ppl what we do. so out in the pouring rain and howling wind on a steep hillside we danced for about 20 seconds and then collapsed laughing. due to the nature of the situation.

We got to the Corbridge pub at 4ish and had hot bowls of soup and warmed up. I was lucky- my Dry-za-bone had kept my torso and upper body dry but my lower half was soaked thought- some of my traveling companions had just brought hoodies with them.

Anyway we got back to the city after a sleepy bus ride. I raced to Henderson Hall to eat dinner (Yorkshire puddings and gravy with banana custard for dessert) have a warm shower and change into a bit better clothing and went out to a swing dance night at the Jazz cafe. I was discussing what i had done that day with the swingers (don't ask) and Lloyd the head swing teacher replied "why did you go so far? you know that the street this cafe is on is built on Hadrian's walls ruins? Thats why it weaves thought this city."

So in the end i did reach the wall but not in the manner i expected. This city is big and old and i keep on discovering its secrets.



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