It's been a funny sort of day, we had an idea of what we wanted to do, walk part of Hadrian's wall. Trouble was, we couldn't find it! No that's not strictly true, we actually drove along next to it, saw folk walking a trail and assumed it was the wall. Nowhere to stop and park, though, and that was the problem. We drove to Heddon-on-the-wall, found a finger post showing where part of the wall was, parked up in a coach bay at the side of the road and walked, in what we hoped, was the right direction.
Found it with a bit of trial and error, a gate looking very dilapidated, and almost didn't go through. I noticed the sign first. Yep, we were on the right track. Rather than me try to explain all about this section of wall, I thought it easier to take a photo of the sign and let you read it yourself.
Still on the Hadrian's wall hunt, we ended up at Corbridge. Not all the sites were heavily guarded fortresses, and Corbridge was once a bustling town and
supply base where Romans and civilians would pick up food and
provisions. But not a glimpse of Hadrian's wall was had 'cos apparently it was about 2.5 miles from Corbridge itself!
Are we destined to find Roman sites only? Where was the wall??? Off then to a place called Vindolanda. Surely the elusive wall would appear. Nop, this was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) and the wall was just south of it.
It was vast, and the fact that we didn't arrive until 4 pm and they shut at 5 pm, it would be a struggle to see the museum and grounds. But the nice Heritage lady said we could stay as long as we liked and leave by the rotating security gate.
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| Top two picture, horse heads and a dog skeletons and bottom, jewellery and glass found during excavation |
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| The garden by the café |
By 6 pm we were heading back to MB. A wild camp site had been found at Plankey Mill, right on the river. The lane leading down was narrow, I mean very narrow! Both wing mirrors were brushing the sides, and God help us if another car turned up! Made it in one piece only to be confronted with 'Camping Grounds Closed' sign at the bottom. Oh, eck....now what. Back up that lane with fingers crossed nothing would be met, and stopped at the top to start phoning around. Every camp site fully booked. One more to try, and thank goodness they had room. At Haydon Bridge, not 4 miles from where we were stopped, so with hopes once more soaring we headed to the place.Then...OMG...another very narrow lane with a steep hairpin onto the site grounds. When I say steep, we actually bottomed out as Ian tried to swing MB round.. A horrible grating noise was heard, so Ian tried to reverse back up. Nop those wheels started spinning and all we could do was to go forward and continue down. And looking at the place, it was full of static caravans and not another camper or motorhome in sight. What had we come to and more importantly how would we get out?
But all was well in the end. We found the owner and she directed us to a spot right next to the river. All set for the night now, but the worry of how we will bring MB out tomorrow still persists!
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| Anything loose Ian? We got away remarkably intact. In fact, we think it was the step that made contact with the concrete. |
And wildlife today,
6 comments:
If you really MUST go back the way you came (past a farm and under a main road?) then why not reverse out of the site road. Then you won't have the acute turn to worry about. A better bet is to head into the village, and after a quarter of a mile there's 4 way junction by the social club (according to Google Street View). I'm sure you can find a route onwards from there. Why not take a short walk this evening and have a look?
After another look at Google Earth & Street View I've spotted a "Campsite Closed" sign at the top of the lane leading down to Plankey Mill! If it's still there, you must have missed it when turning in from the North - it's leaning against the stone wall, and could now be covered with grass...
We know the feeling, we had to roll back on a particularly steep, narrow twisty lane over the mountains as not all the wheels of the mororhome were touching the road.
We decided to turn to go back, reversed slowly, with the back end hanging over a small stream below, luckily we made it. Never again I told him !!
Glad you were ok there and good luck for a safe retreat too.
Hadrians Wall is fascinating and the museum also looked interesting.
Ann Makemson.xx
Dave, reversing back along that lane with wing mirrors touching both sides and limited reverse view was impossible! And if you read my post properly we did try and reverse off that site road but the tyres wouldn't grip on the loose gravel so the only way was forward. As to the sign at Plankey Mill, no there was no sign and if it had been covered in grass then of course we wouldn't have seen it.
Ann it all adds to the motorhome experience I suppose, but I am always worried when we turn into those narrow lanes and very steep hills. Thank God, Ian is an excellent driver. It's one of the reasons I don't drive much these days, and especially not a motorhome. I've been told to 'man up' by Marilyn (Waka Huia)as she does all the motorhome driving, but I'm too much of a wuss to try. Xx
Me too, but Keith used to drive emergency ambulances and also did coach trips abroad.
However, on this occasion I was terrified, but he calmly coped luckily.
Ann Makemson.xx
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