Sheep, Goats, Cows, Chickens and a Really Big Wall

We woke up to an overcast day, so we decided to drive around the Lake District.  Our host gave us a tour bus brochure that had their route, so off we went.  Unfortunately, since there appear to be only 3 street signs in England (and they're all in London) it took us quite a while (most of it on what appeared to me to be goat paths, and for small goats at that) to get on the correct road.  But along the way we were treated to some magnificent scenery.

Plus we got to get up close and personal with some goats

and sheep

This one appeared to us to be a regular sized sheep, wearing a very large brown overcoat.  Look how small his head appears in relation to his body.  Clearly a pinhead!  

Now you have to picture this: it's 50 degrees, cloudy, drizzly and extremely windy.  And what do we see but a group of back-packers!! 

The only thing I'd be packing would be a heater!

We kept trying to get a picture of this kid with her mother, but every time we got close, they ran away.  I guess this isn't the petting zoo after all.

And this brings up the age old question, Why did the chicken cross the road?

And then there was this rooster, who stood in the middle of the road, even when I pulled the car up to within inches of him.  I'm quite sure if I could understand rooster talk, it would have been, "Hey mate!  This is my road, find your own."

Given how much it had been raining, there were "waterfalls" galore.  It reminded us of Hawaii where you see these all the time on the rainy side of the islands.

We passed this chapel along the way, so I stopped in the middle of the road for Susan to take pictures (it's not like we were on a super-highway).

This sign should be on 80% of the roads we've traveled on in England!

Then we headed to Hadrian's Wall, a wall built by the Romans to keep the northern tribes from attacking their lands to the south.  On the way we ran into a cow traffic jam.

Luckily they weren't quite as stubborn as the rooster, when you pulled  the car up to them they politely moved out of the way.  I'm not sure I could have talked Susan into getting out of the car to shoo them away like she did the rooster.

When we first got to the Homestead Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, the wind was howling and it was raining and it was COLD, so we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and went to have lunch first.  After lots of tea and coffee to warm up, we came back and at least the rain had stopped, so we soldiered on.  However, can you tell I was still a little cold?

But after a 10 minute walk up a steep hill, it warmed up enough to at least lose the hood.

There's not much left of the fort itself, and we didn't walk down to the wall (it was still cold) but you can get an idea of the scale of it by the people in the picture.  When the romans built it, it ran all across the island and had forts and watchtowers ever mile or so.

After leaving the Wall, we headed to Durham and our next B&B.