The armour has arrived

When Simon told me the armour was heavy I laughed it off.
“Can’t be that bad” I had said.
So when it turned up courtesy of Townend’s Courier Service. (a.k.a Simon and his black Saxo). I was surprised to feel the full weight of it.
By that time Alan had already had his for an hour and text messages from him were heading my way every few minutes.
“Looks good.” “My helmet is too big.”
After cleaning the grease and grime off my armour, I finally got ready try it on.
After receiving several bruises and a few scratches I was able to stand with it all buckled up, only to find I had put it on backwards!!
This walk suddenly seemed like a very demanding task.

Having got the armour, I turned my attention to arming us for the walk and getting material to make the tunics.

Trawling through material shops, looking for the right type of material, didn’t strike me as very macho, so I dragged Alan along to make it less embarrassing. Disturbingly we began having conversations about how soft the material was and if it was the right colour. I’m sure legionnaires wouldn’t have done that!

Finally I decided to seek advice from the older generations. My grandparents.
I should have done this earlier as they found some material that was suitable within a week. Kindly they offered to buy the material for us, as a donation to the walk.
So on to making the tunics. Purchasing several cheap yards of material to experiment with proved to be a good idea.

My first attempt fit well, like a glove, a very tight glove.
The second attempt was better a little more fitting for a Roman soldier.
Eventually I turned my attention to making the three tunics, measurements provided by the other two. Miraculously they all fit well.

In the meantime our wooden swords had turned up and I had measured up and got material to make authentic looking scabbards (sword holders if you’re not sure) for the three of us. This is still work in progress – we hopefully should have some pictures for you soon!

Rob