Day 3 - Tuesday: "Mithras and Mr Blue Sky"

Before we reflect on day 3 a note of big respect from the team goes to Dev for completing 26 miles 385 yards a whole lot quicker than us. His time for Sunday's Brighton marathon was 4:10 which was a great result for a tough course round Brighton.
The story of day 3 starts with an as yet unanswered question...so, are Hoops's walking trousers really waterproof? Well, blog followers we all prepared for what the forecasters said would be a pretty wet day. But, in the end it turned out to be near perfect with just a spattering of some brief showers and a case of quirky hail Caesar near the end of the walk.
Perhaps our morning visit to the Temple of Mithras which is dedicated to a Sun God played a part. The result was an awesome day of just incredible panoramic views across Northumberland. There were continual photo opportunities and Caesar Steady was swapping lenses with true Roman efficiency.
A mid morning stop saw us run into a local entrepreneur and his "Very fresh coffee company" wagon, which was only serving tea and hot chocolate!
It was a tough day on the legs, initially through several fields of energy sapping very soft ground and later some highly amusing bog jumping when Tom combined a forward roll and double twist with one of his efforts. This was nothing compared to the seemingly endless procession of crags which combine steep descents followed immediately by an equally steep climb. This saw a vicious outbreak of walking tourettes throughout the team, although it has to be said that many of the exclamations were inspiringly funny.
The camaraderie amongst the team was as strong as ever today and this then extended to our fellow walkers on the wall, several of whom kindly added further donations to the sponsorship fund.
And amongst all of this let's not forget what we had come to see and follow. The achievements of Hadrians armies were extensive and well preserved. So, although Neil held the map all day we all knew where we were going. Halsteads Fort provided further historical reflection of Roman everyday life.
As the team split for the overnight accommodation the majority literally let off steam at the Twice Brewed pub which was then also the venue for the team dinner. A fun evening was to follow though the cumulative impact of our 3rd days walking saw us retire around 10pm.
The total mileage completed was just over 15 miles and J-P's official stats were 24.4km in 32500 steps and burning 1647 calories.