I was out of signal range for about 24 hours and am now sitting in a parking bay writing a quick belated blog beneath this HUGE welcome!

Last night amidst strong winds and scattered showers I travelled towards a small town called Haltwhistle. Here I would follow a rough farm road 3 miles inland to stay overnight at a B&B farmstay.

Before getting there I visited a very informative visitor’s Centre at Cawfields which featured a great 3D film on this amazing Hadrian’s Wall and the life of a common roman soldier at this bleak northernmost outpost to the Roman Empire.

I learnt some latin in the classroom – ‘knowledge is power’

And after enlisting in the army headed out to find Hadrian’s Wall. This was once huge – 3 metres? – high, and spanned the narrowest breadth of Britain

It was thrilling to stand where the romans had an outpost 2000 years ago.

I got back in to the car and headed to my farmstay wishing I had a 4WD to negotiate the rough road.

After 5kms of this I found it – outside of signal range.

Last night I made my own dinner from salads bought at service centre off M6, and settled in listening to rain and watching the ENTIRE series of BBC Pride and Prejudice. Bliss!

This morning I had my muesli and swung out to go north – enjoying the huge expanse of rolling Northumberland hills and plains.

In 1.3 hrs I’ll be in Edinburgh!