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So here we are folks.. looking forward to a new venture for our brave soldiers who wish to do battle with the barbarians on Hadrian's Wall come the summer of 2008!!

 

After this year's event was cancelled because of circumstances that were initially beyond our control etc we are about to venture on a new campaign that will hopefully see our legionaries come together in a show of defiance that will astound the locals into showering us with lots of good food, beer and who knows, maybe chests of gold (I wish)!

 

OK... seriously now... I am targeting a range of dates that will cover June, July and early September at the outside. The preference is for June or July and probably before the kids break up for summer holidays here at the end of July. The best weekend may be one of those in the latter mentioned month.

 

There will be an itinerary similar to that which was planned for this year and if the weather gives us grief then a contingency plan will be put in place so no-one will get unduly soaked all day!! The original plan was to visit Vindolanda and possibly Housesteads or even Chesters, Corbridge or Birdoswald. Being Hadrian's Wall the weather could be unpredictable but that will not dampen our mad enthusiasm. If the Romans could put up with it for a few hundred years then a couple of hours will not harm us... (he says!!).

 

So what I am looking for here and now is a list of possible candidates who feel they could very well make it or indeed WILL make it along next year. I need to find dates from you all that you can make with relative confidence as we don't want to find changes of dates having to be enforced. Everyone is welcome of course. Accommodation will be sought when we have numbers deemed worthy of making tentative bookings. I do hope to have all that tied up very early this time round so as not to disappoint. Late comers will be welcome but may find they need to book up themselves if we have already done so as a group.

 

Transport may be of help depending upon numbers coming so any of you that could bring transport along could you let me know? If that is not feasible then other arrangements via public transport will be sought. The Hadrian's Wall Bus has been a shocker this year after timetable changes but next year may see further changes. I will post those if there are any or as soon as I find the new timetable has been published.

 

Accommodation may be sought either in Jesmond, near Newcastle, where tons of facilities are available or Hexham which is more central to the Wall but with lesser amenities as opposed to the former.

 

I will leave that there for now so please do let me know your intentions or possible thoughts as soon as you are able.

 

Go Hadrian!!!!!

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I'm very interested in going, but as for dates, I won't be able to say anything until March or April. I'm entering another round of academic employment applications, and I won't know until then where I'm going, when I'm going, etc. So June or July will work the best for me, but I can't give anything more specific than that for quite some time. Whatever dates you guys choose will be fine with me!

 

My goal is to make this a week-long trip, as in my flying into London/other parts of England, spending a couple of days in one place, and then going up to the wall. Or the reverse, whichever works out best.

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You couldn't make it December by any chance.

Or move venue to Australia.

hehe

 

vtc

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You couldn't make it December by any chance.

Or move venue to Australia.

hehe

 

vtc

 

Ah Vibius

 

I could hire a few hundred trucks and then a couple of really large jets and load the whole Wall on to those with the gang hidden in the middle of some parts of the Wall and bring the whole kit and kaboodle to Alice Springs or somewhere close to hand!! If only...!!!!! :D Of course, you would have to pay!

 

December is smack in the middle of our winter as you know and most of the Wall would become inaccessible for obvious reasons. Some areas open for specific days or what have you but alas we are going to turn down your request unfortunately. Nice try though!! Couldn't you make it then in July or near that date? I know it'll cost a packet but one never knows....

 

And so to doc.... it's good news that you may be able to make it this time round and hopefully the dates will be static enough to say to you that July is probably the best bet with June a close second. We will organise around those dates if plenty members can do that so you at least have something to aim for even now. I hope it works out for you and you do eventually get to see our superb heritage as far as the Wall goes.

 

So far then, without being too presumptious on names I give below, we can almost certainly count on the following...

 

Augustus Caesar (my good self) and my lady wife Flavia, Augusta, Northern Neil, Andrew Dalby and his good lady, Caldrail, Pertinax and docoflove1974. So there's 10 already. Now, talks were meant to have been given by myself, NN, Augusta and Caldrail and this I assume will still be the case so there will be plenty of chances to rib us and call us names if we get stuff wrong. Just beware we will have lions awaiting in one of the forts so be careful!!

 

Hopefully the numbers will be correct as far as the above go and we do honestly want as many as possible to come along and make it hugely successful. So do try and commit as soon as possible so we have an idea of numbers in total.

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I just wished to mention Bath and Chester as possible "social" meet locations. Though both have substantial roman relevance.

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I just wished to mention Bath and Chester as possible "social" meet locations. Though both have substantial roman relevance.

 

Hi Pertinax

 

Whilst the idea above is made by yourself I will address the response generally if that is OK... you may see my intention when you read on...

 

These are distinct possibilties. I have been to Bath recently and it was fabulous. Chester we have not been to. That doesn't rule out either for us as we are both very keen to see any Roman area in Britain. So any suggestions are going to be good ones as are the above. There is the Wall meet which will be our organised trip and a 'social' meet could well be a different location each year as opposed to York, which can become, as I have pointed out earlier, 'samey'. That is no disrespect to the fair city of York at all but to go to the same place each year may not hold an appeal for most. It could also come down to costs too as travelling to destinations twice in one year may not suit all. In that way some may get to one and not the other so that may work. We can play that one by ear as we do not wish any social meet to take emphasis from the Wall one at this stage.

 

Of course, folks can privately arrange a social meet if they so wish and that could actually be a much better way of doing things. That way it will not confuse anyone here as to which meet is the 'official' one so to speak. Social gatherings could be organised to meet anywhere in England and we could also have our annual 'official' meet in different locations around the country. This would also facilitate those living nearer the area of destination to organise things as opposed to someone who doesn't know that area too well. This also spreads the 'workload' around the group and gives everyone a feeling of belonging and being able to organise something they wish to see/do as opposed to the same people picking their own preferences etc. There are several ways to do each here as we would agree no doubt but ideas are always welcome and will not be pushed aside without due consideration I am sure.

 

Whilst I am organising this trip around the Wall I would not wish to give anyone the impression I will organise each trip each year or anything remotely like that. I know that may not sound quite right or read the way I wish it to but I would far sooner see (from my own humble point of view) a good spread of sites to visit and each of us take on some organising to allow those to come to fruition. So, yes, we could have social meets around the country but should we organise those in a different way? For example through private PM's or on a different thread? One thing is we don't want them to clash with any other meets we organise in the future and have them detract from those. Or, indeed, to completely take over?

 

Anyway, plenty of food for thought there, so ideas are welcome of course. But do remember that this thread is mainly for the Wall meet so do try to keep things 'minimal' so we do not lose our way here.

 

At the moment a social meet for us before the Wall one would not be feasible I fear but if others wish to do that then please do of course. My own target for now is to organise the Wall meet and get things off to a grand start as quick as possible and who knows maybe a social meet somewhere like York (?) may be a thing we could get to.

 

I leave that one there...

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Ill make it clear that I vote for The Wall as the "official meet" for 2008..as you say we can pm for a drink, er sorry I mean " informal discussion of Romanophile literarture".

I certainly acknowledge your point about organising more meetings, I wish to avoid anyone feeling obligated to carry the weight of that, and I understand what you have said. I hope we might find younger members coming through with ideas and suggestions for the future.Ive kept a lowish profile as I felt the first meet was quite strictly timetabled by myself ,(as we were finding our way ) my thinking being that , now we have an idea of personalities and interests we can be a little more relaxed (though not disorganised) in our general approach.

At some time ill kick off a UK "social" thread so we can talk food and pubs , and who is backing Caldrail in his next tournament.

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Well you can count me in again, I was looking forward to the last meet but alas it wasn't meant to be. So lets just make sure we make this one a success.

 

As far as the dates go I'm OK so far, I'm planning to go away at some stage during the school holidays, but if we get a definite date sorted then I can always plan around it.

 

I think the plans we had for the meet that never was were pretty good, i.e. I liked the look of Jesmond for a base, the hotel seemed spot on and reasonably priced, the meet with the re-enactment group would have been excellent and so on, so if we can go down the same route again then I'm sure it'll be a rip roaring success, and we might even get some sunshine as well!!

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Well you can count me in again, I was looking forward to the last meet but alas it wasn't meant to be. So lets just make sure we make this one a success.

 

As far as the dates go I'm OK so far, I'm planning to go away at some stage during the school holidays, but if we get a definite date sorted then I can always plan around it.

 

I think the plans we had for the meet that never was were pretty good, i.e. I liked the look of Jesmond for a base, the hotel seemed spot on and reasonably priced, the meet with the re-enactment group would have been excellent and so on, so if we can go down the same route again then I'm sure it'll be a rip roaring success, and we might even get some sunshine as well!!

 

Great to know you will be with us GPM. We did indeed have some nice stuff planned for the aborted meeting, so hopefully that will act as the basis for the new one.

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I must say I'm envious, I really wish there would be be a Swedish counterpart to your UK meeting!

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You could sail to Newcastle and meet us!

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Well I lack a longboat and a flight ticket is out of my foodbudget as the poor student I am. Unless I stumble upon a miracle, I'm afraid that Copenhagen will be as far as I get for a while.

 

It is very tempting however.

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Or, if ambition takes hold, you could swim!

 

Anyway, I am not too sure if I can make those dates as I will be excavating at Vindolanda at that time; and, if all goes well, I may be at the British School at Rome the following month.

 

I would also like to apologise for my resent absence from the forum over the past month - up until now, I have been internetless in my new house, so I only really get five minutes a day in the library.

Edited by WotWotius

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Klingan my dear friend... you have the advice of cathcing boats, swimming, flying and all else but funds lack... how about hitching it? I thought you Scandinavians were good at that sort of thing? Or did I read it somewhere?

 

WotWotius... If you are at Vindolanda then we will undoubtedly pay you a visit and ask hundreds of questions to either annoy you or test your newly found knowledge!! Well, OK - we'll pop in and see you!! :disgust: If you are there and obvioulsy finish your dig at 5pm-ish wouldn't you be able to join us later on? Even in Newcastle on the Saturday or Friday when we all gather?

 

So, we'll be on the lookout over the hills for flyers, swimmers who are drying out as they walk through the wideopen grasslands, hikers who have large backpacks with blue and yellow flags on them or a wanderer wearing a canoe!! :)

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Well I'll see what I can do, if possible by any means I'll try to show up.

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