On the Wall

Our last full day at Hadrian's Wall today. And we made sure to squeeze in every last drop of daylight!
First of all we headed off to the wonderful Sill Visitor Centre for a delicious Full English (me and Mr K), and bacon sandwiches (the Little Misses)
Once we were stuffed we had a lovely wander round the Northumberland landscape exhibition downstairs. It's fabulous - geology, wildlife, culture, farming, fishing, archeology, ecology, and, best of all, an augmented reality sandbox which let you build your own landscape - complete with contour lines and precipitation. The Little Misses loved it, especially Miss E - the power of weather in her hands!!!
Miss L loved dressing up as weird and wonderful creatures. A jellyfish? (see extras)
Eventually we dragged ourselves away and headed along to Chesters Roman Fort. It was all a bit farmlandy and not at all Game of Thrones epic when we got there and I was a bit whingy about it being rubbish and boring and hardly worth looking at slightly disappointed - just field with some rocks in!!!
How wrong I was!! 
Down by the beautiful North Tyne is an incredibly well preserved bath house and you could just imagine all the soldiers in the steam rooms, ice cold plunge baths, hot baths and ice rooms. There were even little cubby holes in the changing rooms for their togas. Amazing!
And the river was beautiful too.
And the remains of the barracks which housed five hundred calvary troops (along with their horses!) for over three hundred years. Three hundred years!!!!
The little museum was ace too. A real Victorian style museum opened by John Clayton who discovered the fort in his front garden and went on to excavate and preserve Chesters and other forts and sections of the wall.
So many artefacts made my head spin! As usual it's the domestic things that get me - the needles they sewed with, dice they played with, board game pieces, buckles, cups, grain measures...... As usual I was overwhelmed by the thought that someone - thousands of years ago - last touched and used that object and then put it down or threw it away or lost it, and it was forgotten for hundreds and thousands of years. Until I stand and look at it in a glass case. Amazing!!
After 25 years service a Roman Soldier was given a "Diploma" which awarded him - and his family - Roman citizenship, and a house and money and a legal marriage to whatever wife he'd had before. One was found at Chesters and it was one of my favourite things in the museum (see extras)
Then it was time for some walking!!
We headed back to Steel Rigg near the Sill and set off for Sycamore Gap. I was soooooooo much fitter than last year so all that walking in 2019 has definitely paid off. 1400 miles so far and still a few days to go!
What a fabulous walk!! It's breathtaking. It was getting late so we had Sycamore Gap to ourselves. We carried on up a bit further than last year and ended up on top of the world with stunning views in all directions. And the beginning of a wonderful sunset! We sat on some rocks and had a very healthy hiking snack of mince pies, kettle crisps, Christmas cake and brioche. It may have been getting dark but at least we weren't going to starve!
Then we headed back. The sunset got more and more spectacular as we walked.
Then suddenly it was quite dark and we had to climb down a cliff!!!!! See extras - you can just make out the Little Misses in the gloom!
We made it back to Marshall in the empty car park just before it got too dark to see. Perfect!!
Back to the campsite and a first for me - a bath!!
First in a campsite rather than a first ever bath! 
With bubble bath from the Queen Mary 2!!