Hexham to Carlisle - Day 21

Date: September 8th, 2009
Distance: 46 miles
Country: England
Song of the Day: Destination Ursa Major - Superdrag

I am an idiot. I should have gone the other direction. Woke up to 20-30 mile an hour headwinds. I did have a hearty breakfast though. That did send me off right. But pushing against the wind was awful. It is hill country around there too. I was struggling to make 4 measly miles an hour most of the time. Then instead of zipping down the other side, was was maybe getting 15 miles per hour. Argh. Nothing to do about it though. I just had to struggle on.

I did keep stopping every few miles to see the next Roman site. I saw Housesteads, which was the first Roman site I had seen actually along the wall. I guess all Roman forts were laid out the same. The empire was built on organization. After the couple the day before, I had actually become used to what I was seeing.

I also stopped and took some pictures at Steel Rigg. This is probably the most dramatic section of the wall remaining. The wall was built on the edge of these huge cliffs. Hard to imagine anyone trying to get through there.

I guess the central sections have remained the best because there just aren't that many people there. People tend to steal the stones from the wall for later building projects. Historically the area along the border between England and Scotland was fairly lawless. No laws, no farms, roads or large building projects. So Hadrian's wall was basically overgrown and forgotten about. So now we can see them. But the sections near either coast have fared worse. Farm houses were built. Field walls were built. Castles and cities were built. So nothing is really visible anymore. If anything is left it is probably under a field or house. So I stopped for every tower, mile castle and Fort I could see. All very cool.

In the afternoon the wind died down a bit. But it did that just after it started pouring rain. At Birdoswald it was raining so hard that the map they gave me fell apart. It was a cool place. After the Romans left the site was used by a local cheiftan. Then it fell into ruins. I guess one of the gatehouses was standing until a couple hundred years ago. Then it was torn down to make way for a barn. Shame. Anyway, I was trying to do everything fast because every ounce of me was soaking wet. (Which is weird because an ounce is a liquid measurement...) If you don't keep moving it starts getting very cold. So after only 25 minutes I was back on the road.

I would like now to discuss a slightly vulgar topic. Ladies, avert your eyes. I am talking about poop. All animals do it. As I mentioned the farm gates before, that means that animals are using the path I was riding on. Being animals, they poop on it. Even the regular roads are used by horses or people herding animals across them to be quite spotted with dung. Normally this isn't a big problem. You just avoid as much as you can. In the rain it is a different story. The watter puddles on the road and liquifies the poop. You end up riding through puddles of road grime and poo. Whenever I went faster than about 10, like down a hill, this mess was flying into my face. Less than pleasant. Anyway, enough about that.

So I found my way into Carlisle. The route the bike path took was quite frustrating. I think they were designed to stay off any major roads as much as possible. But that mean zig-zagging around a lot. At one point I was within 5 miles, then rode down the way a bit and was now 9 miles away. The damn path cost me 4 miles. Then again, with all the water on the road I really didn't want to be riding along a busy road and getting splashed every time a car or truck passed. So I guess that was best.

I even made it into town before dark. Which was pretty much a first. I was looking for a youth hostel to go to. After all the wet weather I didn't really feel like pitching a tent. The security guard at McDonals (the only thing still open) was quite helpful and directed me to one. Sadly once I got there, I couldn't find anyone at reception. One of the residents came out (for a smoke) and corrected me. It had stopped being a hostle 4 days before. It was only a hostle during the summer months when school is out. After that it is a dorm for the local colledge. What a pisser.

So now it was dark and I didn't feel like wandering out of the city to find a camping spot, so I stopped at another B&B. It was very nice, but still much more expensive than camping. Oh well, at least I would get a good meal out of it. Sadly no internet, otherwise I would have posted sooner.

-Dravis