Pork and Apple: England – Part 1 (Hadrian’s Wall and the Lake District)

We decided to rent a van. A Wicked van. They’re everywhere in Australia but you don’t see that much of them in the UK. The van gets a lot of interest, from people slyly taking photos, to boldly take photos to people pointing and yelling “Wicked Camper!” in an English accent.

The Wicked Van

We have the van for 12 days, starting and finishing in Edinburgh and plan to do a loop in England, hopefully getting pretty close to the bottom of it.

Our first night’s destination was a little caravan park on a farm just outside Carlisle so we could start exploring Hadrian’s Wall first thing the next day.

A quick summary of Hadrian’s Wall: it was built by the Romans as a defence against the Scots. It stretched across the whole width of the country and lasted for about 300 years. Eventually the Roman Empire fell and so did the wall. It ended up being looted by local churches to build their cathedrals. Now it’s pretty much just Roman Ruins.

We started off checking out Lanercost Priory. A looooooong time ago it was the capital of England when the King Edward I fell ill there just before he died. It’s basically a nice old church. They still have services there. It doesn’t actually have anything to do with Hadrian’s Wall but was often attacked due to its close proximity.

Lanercost Priory

The Prayer Book inside

Off to Hadrian’s Wall. There are huge chunks of it missing so parts of the wall are just dotted across England. We visited Birdoswald Fort where about 1000 Romans once lived. Strangely there’s now a hostel there in an old farm house (as well as a museum, which isn't so strange).

The First part of the wall we found - an old turret along the side of the road

What Remains of Birdoswald Fort

Next we headed off to the Lake District for a couple of days. The Lake District is a national park in North England that, not surprisingly, is full of lakes, England’s biggest lakes. We soaked up the views from Ullswater and Windermere. Stayed at a caravan park that was infested with adorable rabbits (I’ve never seen so many rabbits!) and went on an awesome high ropes course. We had luckily missed the peak season with most school holidays the being over, but Windermere was still heaving with everyone who doesn’t have to go to school and their dogs.