And so our heroes set forth again

34 miles (54.5km)

Leaving Haltwhistle after four nights was hard; we'd started to settle in! It didn't help that England has started to show her true face again - the overcast, colder one, that is. With just a hint of rain.

Our trip from Haltwhistle to Ovington followed Hadrian's Cycleway - blue signs with a bike and a Roman helmet - but for most of it, we weren't anywhere near the Wall. For the first time, we managed to see interesting things along the route as well as riding a decent distance.

First off, we went to Chester's Fort (having passed Vindolanda and seen the Real Live Archaeologists dumping dirt that didn't have anything interesting in it in a big pile).



The most interesting part about Chester's was the bath house: right by the river, and with enough of the floor and walls intact (or restored? - I've really got James worried about this possibility it's not all 'real') that you can see quite clearly the layout of the rooms, etc, which they've helpfully labeled with probably uses. The picture above shows niches near the entrance which was either for clothes or statues (which to me sounds like a future archaeologist saying "these holes you find in every house may either be rubbish bins or toilets").

Continuing just a little way, we hit the lovely little town of Hexham.



Their abbey, still in use as the parish C of E church, was built in the twelfth century - on the ruins of the one constructed in the 670s. The photo was taken from a mezzanine-type landing they've got above the entrance.

Our last sticky beak for the day was at Corbridge. There was apparently Roman settlement here from soon after Claudius' successful invasion of the island (mid first century), and there's both a military fort and a substantial civilian settlement. Making matters interesting for the archaeologists, lots of sections were built over and re-modeled, so it's not always clear which bit is from which era.

We ended our day in Ovington, a very small village (actually, I'm not sure it is a village; apparently it has to have a church for it to be a village, otherwise it's a hamlet); our B&B is lovely and the bikes are in the stable with some inquisitive horses.