Day 5 - Rest Day. Walk to Vindolanda

Vallum Lodge

We walked 3.28 miles today.

This is our rest day at the lovely Vallum Lodge in Once Brewed.  We had a leisurely breakfast, knowing we did not need to get on the trail today.  The Lodge offers laundry service, so we all gathered up muddy things to have them laundered.  At 11am, we met to walk 1.5 miles to Vindolanda, an excavated Roman fort site.

It was an easy walk along a country road and the day is overcast, but not rainy.  It is a bit chilly, but with a light coat, the weather is fine.  [The British have a saying, "There is no bad weather, only poor clothing choices."]  Vindolanda was a grand way to spend our rest day!  We felt free to poke around the excavations and excellent museum without worrying about having to walk another 3 hours to our stop for the night.

This fort was laid out in the now-familiar Roman pattern, with excellent interpretive panels explaining the different buildings.  There is still excavation continuing here, so some areas were roped off.  This area has apparently been uniquely suited to preserving artifacts and remains from former times due to the composition of the soil in this area.  The most exciting find here, besides lots of shoes, pottery and weapons are "postcards."  These are small letters written in ink that detail mundane happenings about Roman life in this settlement.  There are lists of supplies, a birthday party invitation, letters between friends, etc.  Truly fascinating to read and contemplate.

There is reconstruction of a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall here where we spent time recreating scenes from Monty Python movies.

We had lunch in a lovely tearoom and really enjoyed the museum.  Most of the displays are of Roman daily life rather than the military functions.  They have done an excellent job of telling the stories of the findings.  The excavations are on-going, so the exhibits grow and change.

We walked back to the Lodge mid-afternoon.  Dave and Carol stopped off at the Twice-Brewed pub for a pint, while Robert and I returned to the Lodge.  Everyone relaxed (rested on our rest day) until dinner.  We returned to Twice-Brewed once again.  This place has outstanding food.  Fresh, local and well-prepared.  Robert had the beef pie again and the rest of us had smoked haddock over mashed potatoes.  For dessert, Robert couldn't pass up the Mint Sizzle and I had the Fruit Crumble with cream.  The fruit tonight was rhubarb.  Yum, yum.

As we walked back around 8pm, the day is still quite light.  That is good since we have to walk about 200 yards on a busy highway.  Back on the trail tomorrow, well-rested with clean clothes.