Setting off from Carlisle on a showery day , I was anticipating something a bit different from Hadrians Wall.
The path through farmland and I met with Rel who was a full time soldier in the American Infantry. She was walking the walk with her parents who she was walking well ahead of. Considering her unit marched at four miles an hour she was cutting me a favour by going at my pace.
We had a chat about the military strategy of the Romans, war gaming helped me keep up with the conversation.
I told her about the new UK Ajax armoured car which is so noisy soldiers cannot communicate inside it. This cheered her up , apparently the American military had a tank that caught fire at regular intervals.
When she finally stopped to wait for her parents I pushed on and bumped into Carlos and his dad Max , Germans, who were struggling to find their campsite. I walked with them admiring Carlos’ English which as he appeared to be about 13 was far far better than I could follow a foreign language at his age. I saw them to their campsite and pottered on through the late afternoon to my campsite in a place called Bank. There were some wall remains nearby but they would wait till tomorrow.