The walk. From Corbridge to Chesters -  this what we had all expected warm with a little damp. Coats on zippers undone never quite sure what the next five minutes weather would bring! The question asked at the end of the day " How many styles had we climbed and How many kissing gates had we gone though one at a time?" We are all returning with well exercised our leg and arm muscles. While the fist days' walking was "an easy walk" the second day was one ghat challenged our energy and our patience. The final two hundred metres just about brought us all undone. The mud was over ankle deep with mud and manure that clung to our boots - recognisable to all even at lunch the next day. Trish said it was the mat at the information centre BUT I'm believe it was the stink that followed us from the previous day.

Today was glorious! Lesley's words. It was spectacular but it was straight up and straight down. At one point we looked back and in the distance we could see the tiny figures of walkers a mile away and high above us and fifteen minutes before we had been on that high peak. We saw evidence of the Roman Empire every step ox our walk and we marvelled at the might task undertaken so far from Roam. Each stone weighing a ton and each placed so precisely in its place. At housteds Fort there,  were eight hundred men with all their gear, horses and equipment, a city in its time. The wall followed the natural cliffs (blocks of basalt hundreds of feet high) and Craig's - no need to dig a ditch!

We are holding up well with just a few blisters and sore feet for some of our hikers. We are in good spirits and ready for the next day's challenge.

9 Happy Hikers.