Gladiators!

"Look Jack, I'm flying!"

Well, I have certainly been having a boat load for fun (and with no boat to speak of!). Hayley and I went out to Housesteads Roman fort for a lunch picnic on the weekend. We headed to the supermarket, grabbed the food then I drove us out to the wall. I am proud to say that I didn't use my nav-man once. I feel like a proper local when I don't have to use navigation equipment to get from a to b.
We walked up the hill, through the fort and then, snagging a picnic blanket from the shop we jumped over the fence to the Northumbrian side and plonked ourselves down on the hill behind Hadrian's wall.
We looked out over the hills and fields and imagined the highland and Scottish hordes coming up with the hope of taking the fort. We also discussed the merits of a good ravaging by a Scotsman if we just happened to be there at the time. Hahaha.

There was this neat little rock outcropping a bit down the steep incline so I carefully negotiated my way down, avoiding nettles (go me!) and sheep poo, and then I stood on the rock, arms spread wide. It was a bit like flying to which I shouted out, "I'm flying Jack!" because you really should when standing, looking out across a distance. It was a pretty good vantage point so I then proceeded to try out my mad tai chi skills. Not too bad an effort I thought considering a) that is my ankle that has no ligament any more, b) it was an uneven rock and c) it was a really steep fall off it. Good thing there was only a light breeze. Also, in my mind, I felt a lot more elegant than I look in that photo. I felt sure at the time that my leg was sticking right out and I was prima ballerina in my posing. Oh well.

We sat for a bit and just enjoyed the scenery. It was simply stunning but what struck me was the difference between coming this time and last time a month ago. The weather has been glorious and the sun has shone for almost 4 weeks straight and it has made a huge impact on the ground. The greens are not as vibrant anymore. They are getting yellowed and parched due to the lack of rain fall. Not good for the farmers fields but I do love to drive past paddocks full of hay barrels drying out. Looks picturesque.

From there we made our way down to Chester's Roman fort where they were conducting gladiatorial battles. I have never been to anything like it and I can't wait to go again. I learnt some neat facts about the Romans that I didn't know before, especially about gladiator fighting and the commentators were great for a laugh. The gladiators all had fun names and inappropriate jokes abounded. At the end of the battles I got a photo with a couple of the fighters.

It was only supposed to be for the children but I told them I was a classical studies teacher and my students would love it. They were happy to help and told me that they ran school trips and the such. I smiled politely and told them I was from New Zealand so it would be a bit far to travel. Still, how jealous am I of the teacher in this country who get to take their students out to these sites to actually see history hand's on. They have no idea how lucky that makes them.
The fighting scenes they did were well done too. They used proper weapons and shields, the armour was true to the era and style of gladiators and when one of them was put to death at the end of the fight for losing they had a blood bag which they squashed as they cut their throat to blood sprayed out. Good times.
As the crowd we had to cheer on our favourite fighters and then when asked if the loser should die we had to shout out 'mite' with hand waving in the air and our thumb tucked down to our palm. If we wanted to see death we had to shout 'jugulum' and make a stabbing motion of our thumb to our throats.
I have never cheered so hard at anything. I had a saw jaw by the end of it, I smiled so much.