Short version of this post: I like nature. I take many photos of it. I went to see Hadrian's Wall. It's cool.
Long version of this post:
Good morning!
The accent in Northumberland is TO DIE FOR and after hemming and hawing all morning, I finally asked the owner of the inn we stayed at if I could record his accent. He said yes! (You can get away with anything when you're a delighted tourist.) He just said to give him a topic to talk about, so I asked about the village, and he told me lots about the gret lek (great lake) and the cöus (cows) and all kinds of stuff. SO EXCITING.
These colours though! Goodbye Greenhaugh - it was such a pleasure.
As we drove south I started trying to figure out what to do with the day. I knew I wanted to see more of the national park now that I was in it, so I found a national park center - the Sill - to go to. But first we found wall! Hadrian's wall!
I know people don't find it especially exciting, but like - it's been there for 1900 years. I think it's pretty cool. But yes, it would be less fun for me, too, if the landscape around it wasn't beautiful.
Also I love step stiles.
Found more wall!
And more stiles!
And then we drove to the Sill, just on the south border of the national park, in the village called Once Brewed, also known as Twice Brewed (I'M NOT EVEN JOKING). Liam immediately found the most interactive thing in the whole exhibition ("A thing I can touch and poke?!?!") and it entertained us both for a long time! You make sand mountains and valleys, and the contour lines and colours are projected onto the piles you build, and you can even make it "rain" in the projection to see where there would be lakes and rivers if your landscape was real. Mesmerising!
Then I left Liam in the café to go for a walk (and no, he doesn't mind - in fact, he'd much rather stay behind and rest and read or watch youtube while I'm walking). I hadn't really decided where to go, so I figured I'd just walk up to Hadrian's Wall and walk along it for a while.
The wall turned out to climb up on this ridge, the Great Whin Sill ...
... so so did I!
A squeeze stile! (It's actually called that.) And squeeze I did.
And then I walked along the wall.
The view was not shit.
Down to the milecastle ...
... more pretty, then up again on the other side ...
... then down again to the Sycamore Gap (yes, this is where that scene from Prince of Thieves was filmed (haven't seen it, but people recognised it when I posted about it on instagram)) ...
... and up again. :)
After a while I was getting tired, so I decided to find my way back. I had already seen that a much flatter and easier path ran across the fields below of the ridge to my right ...
... so I just walked down the hill and followed the easier path back to the Sill, which didn't take any time at all compared to all the climbing up and down that I did along the wall. :)
And then, when I walked past the Sycamore Gap again, I took this photo - had to do my part in keeping this "one of the most photographed trees in the UK" - though how they know that, I don't know. It is lovely, though.
When I got back to the Sill, the café had closed and Liam had had to find electricity elsewhere. :)
And then we drove south and arrived in Leeds a few hours later, at the home of this gorgeous man who had a delicious vegan dinner waiting in the oven. <3 But more on that in the next roadtrip post!
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