Reading post it notes in Haytongate, entering someone's dream for a moment ...

We followed the advice given in Map 31 to look for the snack hut at Haytongate - 

I pictured our quirky polymath of a guide compiling these maps - I would like to drink Golden Plover with him, I thought - 

We'd walked from Birdoswald, following the course of the Wall, heading towards Irthington, where we would stay the night - 

Penny said we have five maps to cross today - we traced our progress across the dog eared pages of our guide books - 

We sidled past cows guarding their calves, glimpsed the Pennines, spoke to tetchy farmers, advised Australians where to find traces of the Wall - 

Julia unnerved me with her stories of bulls mashing gates, tossing walkers  over dry stone walls - 

We found the hut in the garden of a house with shining windows - tall trees shaded smooth lawns - a bare legged boy wandered across the close cut grass - 

It seemed as if we had entered, for a moment, into someone's dream - all of my senses were sharpened - bright insects sucked nectar from pale flowers - 

Inside the hut, there were electric kettles, milk and tea bags - you could feast upon thick bars of chocolate - there was an honesty box - 

The walls were were covered with post it notes, stuck there by grateful visitors - 

I spent some time reading the messages, trying to imagine the people who'd written them -

They might emerge in my dreams, the Brazilian, his Swiss wife, Gill, Becky and Chewie the dog - what would they say to me, I wondered - did their spirits still whirl round the thick stone walls of this lonely house?

15.05
July 12 2104

Haytongate