All photos related to this blog entry can be found at Grant & Julie

Hadrian's Wall

We went to see a man about a wall.... a very long wall, 117kms of wall, which was the most heavily fortified frontier of the Roman Empire for 300 years.
The Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in 122AD and oversaw the building of a 4.5 meter high wall with a mile castle (gate) at each ...... wait for it ...... mile and two turret watchtowers in between each mile castle. This mammoth construction took 10 years to complete and was designed to separate the Romans from the Barbarians. Over the construction period the design brief altered from a turf wall in the west and stone wall in the east to being made entirely of stone with a north-side deep ditch (vellum) along the length of the wall.

Today there is a well serviced road complete with interpretive signs, museums and tea rooms. Much off the wall has been dismantled by locals for other construction projects such as farm buildings, stone fences and town infrastructure. That being said what is left standing and discovered is fascinating.

Grant had ridden past Hadrian's wall on a previous trip almost 20 years ago without actually realising it, so a closer perusal was high on the agenda. Starting at Carlisle we rode from west to east along the wall to approximately the middle of England. This structure, in its original form must have been absolutely spectacular in its hey-day and a real testament to the capabilities of the Roman Empire.

Scotland has never stood on the premise of having great summers, so as we headed north it seemed fitting that the temperature should drop by several degrees (as it did) and that the rain would appear (as it did). In fairness the weather in Scotland has been very pleasant and even 'heat wave’ temperatures (in the low 20 deg C) have blessed us, however the first two days felt chilly and wet, giving us practice in setting up the tent in the rain.

Sitting in the pub watching the rain outside all attention was turned towards the big screen TV broadcasting Wimbledon, Andy Murray was playing. Groans of despair were heard at the missed shot. Cries of outrage sung out as the umpire delivered his verdict. After the match a blow by blow dissection of the game was recounted accompanied by much shaking of heads and exclamations of ‘Aye!’ , ‘Aye!’ and ‘Aye!’.

Edinburgh is such a beautiful city, and being able to catch up with fellow Aussie Kelly Stewart (check out her website www.skellydesigns.com ) made it even more special. We first crossed paths with this talented artist in 2006 whilst in Mexico and have kept in touch over the years.

The Royal Mile - Edinburgh

Kelly took us on a whirlwind evening tour of Edinburgh show casing some of her favorite buildings and filling us in on the history and best not so touristy spots of the royal city.

Tartan appeared to be everywhere including the chinese "Hongfu" noodle bar we dined in.

We spent a day wandering the city and soaking up the atmosphere of a town preparing for one of the world’s largest festivals and for the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II.

We were advised to take the picturesque Fife Coastal Road north from Edinburgh to Aberdeenshire instead of the motorway. This pretty scenic drive is lovely and dotted with villages, traffic roundabouts, speed humps, tourists and buses. After a fantastic evening, the night before our journey, with Kelly, Angus, venison steaks and a bottle of Merlot, Grant did not fully appreciate the slow pace of the road, nor its obstacles.

The Morning After the Merlot

However, arriving in the wee fishing village of Gourdon was worth the effort. Seeing Emma and Hamish, with whom we travelled extensively in Argentina, and finally meeting their two children Sam and Isla for the first time was very exciting.

Emma had given us directions “Go to Gourdon” she said “Find the white house, it is the only one”. Lobbing up in the village and there are quite a few white houses. “If you can’t find it just ask for Emma and Hame’s house.... someone will know!”.