After leaving Scotland we went and had a look at Hadrian's Wall, another incredible feat of Roman engineering and organisation. The segment we saw was the longest continues section remaining and there was also a fort built on the spot we went to. From Hadrian's Wall we followed a minor road that had been recommended to us by a couple of cyclists, they said it didn't have much traffic on it, and it didn't which was just as well because most of it was single lane stuff and it was great. It took us up over the grassed hills and into the Lake District that we had heard so much about. The weather was fine, though a little cool and the sky was clear, this had brought out everyone, so once we hit the main road and the town of Keswick, I was ready to keep going, it was bedlam, so we did, onto the Yorkshire Dales. We thought the scenery here was just as good, if not better and there was a lot less traffic. We couldn't believe the dry stone walls they use to fence off the fields, we had seen them before in other parts of Scotland and England, but here they were higher and just went on for ever. As it was starting to get late and cool, we decided we should try to find a campground to stop in, we pulled into one that wasn't much to look at so we pushed on, then we saw a sign pointing down a small road saying campground a couple of miles and decided to head for it. The road was a very narrow single lane road with dry stone walls on either side right at the edge of the bitumen. Eventually we got to the campground and found reception had closed and as we were the only tent there we chose a spot near some trees and a fence to try to get out of the breeze that was cutting through us. In the morning the owner suggested we keep following the road through to a place called Settle, it was brilliant, very steep in places, but it took us through some fantastic country, mainly grazing fields.
The morning had started fine and chilly, at Settle it started to rain and continued on and off as we headed towards Manchester, but as we went over some hills the sky looked very menacing, then as the wind got stronger the rain became sleet and then snow as we watched the temperature drop to 2°, it was terrible, we had to keep scraping the snow off our visors and it was building up on our jackets and the screen of the bike, but by the time we were on the ring road around Manchester it had stopped and by Chester the sun was out and the temperature was up to 14°. Unfortunately the wind stayed with us all the way to Holyhead where we managed to find a campground were we were able to get in by some hedges to shelter us from the wind, a bit. Next day was the ferry to Ireland and the wind hadn't dropped, but it was fine. Julie wasn't looking forward to the crossing, she could see the white caps out at sea being whipped up by the wind. Before we sailed we had a bit of a look around Holyhead, but there wasn't much there to see, in fact the town looks as if it has suffered in recent years. We had lunch in a very affordable cafe that looked as if all the locals went there. Once of the ferry Julie's fears didn't come true, the crossing was very smooth though the the ferry was packed due the the earlier ferry being cancelled due to the weather.