Day 20: Exploring Vindolanda

August 15, 2024: It rained pretty much the entire night and for a good chunk of the morning, and I was sure glad that I didn't have to camp in it! The weather forecast for the day hadn't been that awesome either with rain expected the entire day, so it was convenient that I happened to plan another zero day today.  Coincidence? Partly. But I knew today was likely to have some nasty weather, so I tried to plan around it.

The rain died down into an aggressive drizzle, and it was time to pack up and move out. Although I wasn't planning to hike the trail today, I did have a plan and, unfortunately, it did require being outside. I was going to explore the ancient Roman fort and village of Vindolanda. Located only a couple of miles away, I was told it was well worth a visit.

There was a bus that I could have taken to the ruins, but it only ran once every couple of hours so I decided it would just be easier and faster simply to walk there, despite the rain, and that's what I did.

After paying the admission fee, the workers there allowed me to drop off my pack in an office so I didn't have to carry it around the site all day.

Entrance to Vindolanda

Vindolanda can be visited without a tour guide, but a free guided tour was scheduled to start only about 10 minutes after I arrived so I decided to join that. Several other people waiting for the tour to start were lounging around so I made small talk with them until Paul, our tour guide, showed up and started telling us the story of the Romans and Vindolanda.

I won't get into the whole story--you could read about the Romans for years with all of the information about them found online--but in a nutshell, Vindolanda was one of the major forts that provided support for Hadrian's Wall and the soldiers that patrolled the area. It was under Roman occupation from about 85 AD to 370 AD and that as many as 1000-2000 people lived there. Excavations have been extensive, but only a small section has actually been excavated so far. Excavations are ongoing and there's enough to keep excavating at the current rate for over a hundred years. There will constantly be new discoveries and interesting finds coming from this location.

Paul, the guy in the center, explains the history of the ruins behind him.

The tour was wonderful, but the aggressive drizzle continued throughout the entire tour. After the tour ended, I headed to the gift shop, museum and cafe to get out of the rain--and hoped the rain would stop by the time I looked through the museum and ordered some lunch.

That didn't happen, however, and eventually I headed back into the rain to continue my own exploration of the Vindolanda site, checking out the areas that the tour didn't cover and reading all of the plaques and informational signs that we hadn't stopped to read during the tour.

I spent several hours at the site, and it was enormously interesting and educational! But it was time to go....

So many ruins to explore!

I returned to the entrance where I picked up my pack and then headed out to the bus stop. I decided to go to Hexham for the night. Karolina had to go there just to get off the trail--basically on her way to Edinburgh. For me, it was totally out of my way--I was already next to the Pennine Way where I needed to keep going--but it allowed me to go into a town with a real grocery store to resupply as well as check out another small English town. And, theoretically, I might even end up in Hexham during my hike of the Hadrian's Wall Path since there was an alternate path that led to the town that I could potentially take. Now I could see what I'd be missing if I chose not to return later. =)

The bus, AD122, follows near Hadrian's Wall and is the main bus for tourists exploring many of the walls best locations. The bus was also cleverly given the name of the year the wall's construction was started, which I thought was wonderful. =)

So I took the bus into Hexham, where I checked into a hotel for the night. The rain had finally stopped, and for dinner I headed to a restaurant called Little Mexico, which had some good Mexican food although the music was a bit loud.

A Mexican dinner in England! =)

Before returning to the hotel for the night, I stopped at a supermarket to pick up a few items. I needed enough food to finish the Pennine Way. 

And thus ended another day......

All of the important Roman sites nearby... and not nearby! =)

This is a replica of what they think the wall would have looked like before it became the ruins you see today.

View of the Vindolanda ruins from the top of the replica wall and turret.

This area appeared to be undergoing active excavations. (But maybe the workers took the day off today because of the rain?)

A yarnbombing creation set on the top of a mailbox--or letterbox, as the British like to call them--in Hexham

I had to order dessert, and in a Mexican restaurant, that meant churros!