UK Winter

Having arrived back in London almost 2 wks earlier than planned, we set about finding some work asap, while dossing at cousin Tim and Hanako's in Hackney. After a couple of days (and more museums - British, Science and the Tate Modern) we were sorted - 3 weeks in Rayleigh, just outside of London. A vet job for Jamie (with accomodation) and Katie would commute to London to help out at Tim's work designing web-sites. This was a pretty good arrangement, although we had to spend 10days living in the Holiday Inn (which was weird after the van - less handy thou - no laundry or kitchen). Katie enjoyed learning lots about web design, and added more HTML skills to her computer language.

One strange effect we found after 3 months without newspapers, movies, radio or any (english) media - we became addicted to watching dvds for a week or so! This included the entire "Prison Break" series (found at the flat we had taken over) over about 5 nights.. It's strange how inurred we normally are to advertising etc - I (JF) also found the radio and ads on the tube incredibly distracting after months without english print. Had to stare at my feet on the escalators or my head would buzz over!

Then we trekked north up to Durham (south of Newcastle) for another 3 weeks vet work for Jamie, and some frustrating internet job-hunting for Katie. The weather turned frosty, with a week of solid frosts making vet work chilly (thank goodness for warm cows!)

Ashfield Vets in Lanchester, Durham County.

Over a weekend we headed further north to Hadrian's Wall country in the Pennines. There are lots of Roman ruins, remainders of the forts supporting the wall built to keep out the wild Picts at the northern-most extent of the Roman empire. There were no tourists about, except for us! We asked the bored-looking lady at the Tourist Info Centre where we could camp in the van, as there were large "No Overnight Camping" signs in the car-park. She agreed that it was illegal to camp anywhere in the park, and then slowly and carefully stated, "Well, we do leave at 3:30, and the rangers leave at 4:00. It's dark then, there'll be no-one here till 9 tomorrow, and the toilets are left unlocked..". Hint taken, we parked up and started cooking tea, after a drink in the pub next door.

Frozen Pennine Puddle

It was rather cold in the van. The wee spots on the roof corners we hadn't insulated formed little icicles overnight, and our water bottles partially froze. Brrrrr!

The next day was stunning, we walked about 5 miles alongside the wall, wrapped up and imagining being a cold Roman guard in shorts and sandals.

The wall runs from Carlisle to Newcastle, and was built in 122 and abandoned about 410. Most of it has been torn down over the centuries for local re-use of the stone.

We stopped at Vindolanda fort, where they have dug up all sorts of artifacts, wonderfully preserved in the anaerobic peat soils. These include wooden writing tablets and tools, a moss-hair helmet crest, and thousands of pairs of leather sandals!

They have re-built a model section of the wall (right)