Monday 19 August After an 8.30am breakfast we get back on the trail for a short 2.8km from Walton to the turn-off to Lanercost Priory. About 1km off the Hadrian's Wall Trail, this monastery was sacked by Henry VIII but much of the church survived and is still used for services today. It was also the site where Edward I convalesced for 6 months whilst trying to recover from dysentery. Unfortunately for him he died shortly after leaving. We act like tourists ...

Sunday 18 August Day 1 of our walk starts with trying to even out the weight in the 3 bags we have for "Hadrian's Haul" which has a 20Kg limit. This company will take our bags to our next destination Low Rigg Farm at Walton so we can just walk with day packs. There is light rain as we set off to walk ~1km to the Sands Centre and the bridge over the River Eden which is our starting point. We follow the River east through Rickerby Park, then through the village...

Saturday 17 August Today is a travel day as we head up to Carlisle, ready to start our 5 day walk along Hadrian's Wall. We book a taxi to the station at Moreton-in-Marsh as breakfast only starts at 8.30am which does not leave enough time to catch the bus at 9.05am. The taxi arrives on time and we walk right up the platform to be sure we are ready to board Coach A on the Cross Country train to Worcester Foregate Street. Then on to the West Midland train for the...

Thursday 15 August Another day out with Richard from Cotswolds Guided Tours, this time on their "Famous Cotswolds Tour" that takes in some of the better known localities. We started with Lower Slaughter (from Old English, meaning muddy place) which is probably our pick for the most picturesque village we saw over the three days in the Cotswolds. A Water Mill which is now a very busy little gift shop is the only retail outlet. The cottages with typical Englis...

Wednesday 14 August An early healthy muesli breakfast at Art Cafe just after 7.00am so we had the first floor dining room to ourselves. Then the rain started. Easy at first so we got back to the hotel OK. By the time we wheeled back to the train station it was really coming down. The machine issued our pre-purchased tickets and we wait for the 9.23am to Hereford. Our seats were in carriage A but what we didn't realise was that there were 11 carriages In th...