The large roman fort of Vindolandia was my morning destination after a large breakfast. This fort is one of the must see sites along the Path although it predates Hadrian's Wall. It is from the earlier line of defenses along the Stangate road. When the wall was started it was expected that the Stangate forts would continue to garrison the legions while auxillaries would man the wall. Later the romans decided to move the legions to the wall because sometimes the Stangate line and the Wall were too far apart. Here though they are very close.

Vindolanda is a big site and there are currently excavations. In fact I watched as a volunteer digger found a piece of pottery. There were also lots of animal bones being pulled up and a bit of a tankard. The famous finds are the writing tablets. So many written records of everyday life have been found that they estimate it will take 200 years to assemble and study them all. That is with only 15% of the area surveyed. The most famous is the Birthday Party tablet from one commander's wife to another. That and others I remembered from TV programs about the wall or at least the roman occupation of Britain. All this interesting stuff took some time to absorb and when I was ready to leave I realised the next bus was an hour away. Quicker to walk.

Back at the park visitor center near the hostel and where I left my pack I had a dilemma. It was now 15:00. If I left without lunch I could hike the trail to the Roman Army Museum but maybe not have enough time to really see it. The other option was to spend another night here and as a bonus get more Internet time and watch a very good movie about the Hadrian's and Antonine's walls. I picked the latter so I am back in the Twice Brewed Inn finishing a pint.