Illumination of Hadrian's Wall

What a weekend!

Look up www.lucysgreatadventure.blogspot.com for more information on illuminating the Roman Wall too.

On Friday night I wrote the checklist for gear for the big day; rucksacks, thermals, torch, hat & gloves, watch (to be synchronised), book, umbrella, mobile phones (as requested -fully charged),cameras, sunglasses, drinks/flasks, sandwiches, boots/socks, fleece & Gortex waterproofs (yes! How did the Romans manage without Gortex?), money for T shirts (If this is only going to happen once in a lifetime- and every 1600 years then I want a T shirt to show I took part and to leave to my descendants!!).

D1 dropped us off at our muster station (The Copthorne Hotel) wherein we met our leader, Dan; we were provided with hot drinks (watch how much you drink as you don't know where you will be so where you will be able to perform your next wee!) & sandwiches, badges, luminous yellow jackets, waiver forms (we had already filled in all sorts of forms); Dan gave us (cell 3) lots of training on setting up our gas burners. We 3 of 'station 32' donned our Tshirts. I could not believe the nationalities there to take part- S.African, Belgian, Norwegian, Australian, New Zealanders, Canadians, and from all parts of the UK- and everyone chatting to everyone- we were all so proud to be a part of this event. Dan gave us our locations then walked us all to said locations whereat we awaited delivery of the burners.

OH my goodness- so we couldn't get a place at Sycamore Gap (D3's favourite location in all the world) BUT we were placed at the TYNE BRIDGE So iconic and so Novocastrian to be beside the original Roman Pons Aelius. By 4pm we had set up & tested our burner opposite the Slug and Lettuce. People were wonderful- we were visited by so many folk- locals (including Paolo) and visitors,hens and stag parties, tooted at by cars including fire engines and limos; there were photographers from all over the world who came to take photos once we set the flame going at 6.45pm; we saw the beacon light downstream of us (St Peter's Basin) on the bend; then the beacon at the Millenium Bridge - YAY! Then us... then the Copthorne - we could see the Roman candles (hessian wrapped & dipped in wax) in between (flames every 250 metres). The helicopter came whizzing in very quickly from Wallsend's Roman fort of Segedunum (we did see the fireworks there along the river); we all danced at the helicamera wherein the pilot was probably working out if he was goin to go under or over the Tyne Bridge! We could see several flames up and down the north bank of the Tyne - the Roman Wall is in mid Newcastle city and under buildings so the illumination followed the Roman Heritage Path along the Tyne then followed the Wall itself. As requested, we told everyone what was happening- though many already knew & had come to take part/chat/take pictures. Eeh! We had someone mooning; and the Malmaison moved the Millenium burner 'off their land'- Don't they realise this is the start of British Tourism Week and they might benefit from this event? Boo!

Apparently the illumination idea had been mooted 2 years ago & really started on 9 months ago; there were major discussions on the timing of the event- if it happened later at night in the dark, there were more remote parts of the Wall where folk would have difficulty getting off safely so it was decided to wait till the sun went down but it would not be completely dark.

We switched off our burner at 7.10pm , waited for it to cool before packing it up; Dan checked us out. We waited ages for a pickup of equipment before joining a freezing team 31 to walk back with our gear to the Copthorne where we got Fair Trade goodie bags mainly from Traidcraft including their lovely ginger cookies, Divine orange chocolate (Lent has been temporarily abandoned) and Cadbury's CDM- Thank you to all those contributors. We taxied home elated & exhausted.

There were news teams there from all over the globe- including China; Willington High School in Wallsend are twinned with a Chinese school; also the Chinese are looking at it because.... what the British do on March 13th 2010 , on Hadrian's Wall, China may do on the Great Wall of China sometime.

Criticisms? I have heard Segedunum was a bit disappointing & disorganised: no pick up of equipment after 'cool down' so freezing- we gather there was only one van for every pickup: nowhere to chat about the experience at the end- refreshments finished very early so illuminati just had to go home.

I am so thrilled D3 applied for this and feel so lucky to have been chosen to take part in the illumination of Hadrian's Wall.

Can I tell you about Mothering Sunday tomorrow?