Cawfields to Housesteads

Some would say that having read the weather forecast for Saturday 6th August, four people and a dog would be rather silly to contemplate going out to do a 6 mile walk........ but that's exactly what we did.

Forecast said rain - rain it did, and more rain, and thunder claps, and more rain.  It certainly did rain.

Anyway, when we reached Cawfields and got out the car you could class the rain as a drizzle.  Perhaps we should put our coats on, we thought, so we did.

At this point I should apologise for the poor quality photos, my lovely big camera is a little scared of the rain, so I had to borrow hubby's little "point & snap".

We walked around the gorgeous Cawfields Quarry and up onto the wall trail.

Check me out looking like a tropical turtle with my waterproof bag cover.  I was so glad I had that, the benefits of spending a few more pennies and getting some decent equipment.

So, basically, we kept our heads down out of the raindrops, and walked.... up..... down......up.......down.......

This part of the wall walk is like the track of a rollercoaster with steep climbs and drops.  How they built a wall along here I will never know.

In one dip there was a road, this was Shield On The Wall, and here was parked a car which a "Wall Ranger" got out off, his job must just be to walk parts of the wall and check everyone is treating the area with respect.  We had a little chat about Dotty Dog being off the lead, and how controllable she was, then went on with our hike.

At the top of the next hill we found a rock (this was the only thing close to being dry that we could possibly find)  and had lunch.

Dotty Dog had her own dinner box with sausage and biscuits.  She rooted all the sausage out, then left the biscuits in hope of a bit of sandwich crust.

We sat for 10 minutes of so then the rain started to change from drizzle to ....... well, rain.  So we packed up our lunch boxes, zipped up our jackets and set off.

Up........down.......up......down.......

At this point we were 1059 feet above sea level.

Until we came to Cawfields Milecastle, sitting in a dip between two hills.

In the next dip Sycamore Gap, where you can find the famous tree from the Robin Hood film.

At this point we were very wet, our feet were squelching in our boots and raindrops dripping off the peaks on our hats.  Strangely though, we were quite enjoying it, and still loving the scenery.

We passed some really sheer drops (Dotty had to be on the lead at these points obviously) and some really pretty lakes which we never even knew existed.

Close to the end we walked into a little wooded area, this is where the Thunder started.  And it clapped, and rumbled, and frightened the life out of me, which made the blokes laugh lots and make up stories about big wagons.....yeah right!

Leaving the woodland we walked across a couple of fields towards Housesteads Fort.  Where they are doing some excavation.

It was another good 15 minutes downhill to get to the car park (behind that large clump of trees)

The rain was bouncing off the path.  We got to the bottom, dug out our very soggy passports, only to be told the stamping station was back up at the Fort!  Well, sod that, we will get them next time, we thought  ;)

We were drenched, from head to foot, outerwear and underwear too.  We sat on bin bags in the car to save the seats, and poor Dotty Dog was wrapped in her cosy warm towel.

Was good fun though  :)

Check out these fabulous aerial photos I found online....http://www.visitcumbria.com/hadrianswall/hadrians-wall-aerial-photos.htm

Total walked today- approx 6.00 miles.  Time spent - approx 4.00 hrs walking.

Grand Total - Miles 50.75 / Time 24.45 hours.