Hurricanes Hardly Happen - May 2009

The B&B we stayed at in Herefordshire (sadly longer in business) had listed next to it's name in the local accommodation guide "on some days you get a glimpse of pre-industrial England". To be honest, in the Golden Valley, which borders Wales, industrial England is hard to see at all.

We had a lovely few days of pottering about between here and Wales, exploring the Wye valley - here's a couple of select (and slightly abstract) shots...

Roman across the country - May 2009

The first long-distance cycle I have attempted was combined with a trip I'd long hoped to do - travelling along Hadrian's Wall from one coast of the UK to the other. Well, perhaps "long-distance" is over-egging it - the ride actually isn't all that far, only 90 miles or so, despite the impressive sound of coast-to-coast. It was, however, my first overnight ride, which was something I was looking forward to almost as much as visiting the wall.

Joel and I took a Friday night train from Euston, with the plan being to start at Carlisle, ride the 8 or so miles west to the coast, then turn around and commence the ride as closely as possible to the path of the Wall all the way to Shields, outside Newcastle on the east side of the country by the end of the long weekend. On the way, we were planning to stop at many of the ancient Roman sites along the way - but there was a lot more than that to see (such as Lanercost Priory, whose undercroft is shown above), and with a fairly gentle pace of around 30-40 miles a day, it was set to be a great trip.

Something we couldn't plan for, however, was the weather - fortunately we were treated with some incredible meteorology to provide some little-needed extra drama to the Cumbrian and Northumbrian landscape. The wall was built along some truly spectacular terrain, largely due to the fact that an escarpment running along much of the breadth of the country provided the perfect natural defence to be augmented with the construction of the 16 ft wall for barbarian-proofing the south of Britain.


As ever, early-morning walks provided further opportunities for the capture of interesting light across this amazing stretch of the island - which somehow doesn't suffer too much from the rather sever lens-flare I was picking up.


The wall itself is an incredible feat. Stretching 75 miles across the country and raised in its heyday to a height of 5-6 metres (only a couple of metres short of the Great Wall of China), it was also tracked by one of the magnificent roads (now known as the Military Road) that the Romans laid down and is still in use today. Behind the wall was dug large ditch (ironically known now as the "Vallum" - "Wall" in Latin), the purpose of which is still unsure (as a defensive ditch would be on the north side of the wall rather than the south).

The Wall, above, and Vallum, below.

While the wall is now seriously degraded, largely through stone-pilfering to build local houses and fencing, it is still incredibly impressive, as are many of the well-presented Roman sites along the wall. The playing-card-shaped forts are particularly interesting to visit - large stone fortifications housing hundreds of troops, which were identical in layout across the Roman Empire. When one garrison was posted to the wall was relieved by another, they pulled down the entire thing... only for the fresh troops to build an identical one on top. An interesting twist of policy in the Roman army, aimed no doubt at instilling a sense of ownership in the new garrison, which has meant that when the soldiers threw away much of their detritus as they left, it was packed down under the layer of clay used to flatten out the site for the incoming troops to build. As a result of this practice and the qualities of the clay used, matchless examples of everyday items are on display at museums all along the Wall.

We were, of course, also doing a fair bit of riding. The trip was generally very good from that perspective, with the only mechanical problem being a broken chain (Joel MD attending, above). The cycling was superb, with some particularly enjoyable stretches down towards Newcastle, with a 6-mile downhill stretch and then a gorgeous ride along the Tyne to finish.


The final leg was out to Shields, on the east coast of the country, before our return to Newcastle for our train ride back to London. I was expecting Newcastle to not be much to look at, thanks to fairly negative reviews from friends - however was pleasantly surprised to see it is a pleasant city with a lovely centre, and delightful station - all the more so as it was our embarkation point for the first unpedalled motion for 3 days!


Just one last photo - as mentioned, we found some very interesting locations along the way. I think Joel found this one particularly captivating - I'm sure he has managed to get out by now.