Kanga And Wombats Adventures

Misty morning start to the day in North Wraxall!

We had no plans for today until 4pm, when we needed to drop the rental car off in Bournemouth and meet up with friends,  Kath and Alan.

After consulting the maps and drawing a line from Chippenham to ‘Muff’, we discovered we could probably bump into a few things of interest.

But first, we made a quick stop to visit Matt’s cousin Sarah and her new 6 week old baby, Olive Eliza. What a cutie!

Big brothers Luca and Theo weren’t at all interested in these funny speaking visitors, and happily played trains.

The fog had disappeared, and it was a glorious day. As the ‘anthem’ goes, we were definitely immersed in England’s green and pleasant land!

Having started our trip with neolithic magic in the Orkneys, it seemed appropriate to bookend our stay in the UK with the most famous neolithic sight of them all.

We queued for 25 minutes to buy entry tickets and were just about to give up. But happy Carol in the ticket booth and even happier Peter in the shuttle bus buoyed our spirits and made us smile.

And so did this.

A lot had changed since our last visit in 1982. Well, it was 41 years ago! Back then, you parked the car beside the A303, hopped over the fence, and wandered around the stones as you liked.

Now it was pretty impossible to see Stonehenge unless you paid your £24, then took the shuttle bus or walked the 1 mile to where they were standing beyond a strategically placed wood! Some did try to bypass the system by accessing a little dirt lane in their campervans, and the A303 was bumper to bumper with traffic slowing down to take a peek!

But from our perspective, it didn’t matter from which angle you looked at it, Stonehenge was simply spectacular.

Although there were lots of people there, you wouldn’t know it. The sweeping pathway gave you lots of space to connect with its magnificence, stare in awe, and marvel of the meaning of it all.

Back in the day, (1982), we’d cycled from Salisbury to Stonehenge along the River Avon. We were determined to find the little pub we’d stopped at all those years ago, remembering how pretty pretty it was.

Accessing Stonehenge might have changed over the years, but this little spot in the sun was just the same.

The ploughman’s lunch was delicious, the beer tasted good and the swans entertained us. And it was actually hot! That green and pleasant land was serving up a lot of contentment, and it was hard to drag ourselves away.

Thinking we had heaps of time, we made a fatal decision. Salisbury on Market Day! Yikes! As designated driver, I thought it would be a good idea to drop John off at the Cathedral to take some obligatory pics, then ‘go round the block’ and pick him up.

30 minutes later, I managed to claw my way back to where I’d left him. I was completely traumatised! I’d gone up several one way streets, through bus depots, Tescos carpark (three times) and run more than a few orange lights. In the end, a kind man actually stopped the traffic and guided me down a private road to get me vaguely back to where I was supposed to be.

John had taken his phone to take the pic, but as it had been hooked up for navigation, I was stuffed! After my good Samaritan set me free from the traffic chaos I’d found myself in, I basically drove until I saw something vaguely familiar and somehow found the spot where I’d dropped John off. By this time, I think he was just as traumatised as me!

We couldn’t get out of there fast enough!

No more stops. Time was running out to get that car back by 4pm. We didn’t want to deal with Europcar over any more issues!

Kath, a teaching buddy back in the 80’s and friend for 37 years, and her husband  Captain Alan were hosting us for the next 2 nights at Christchurch. She picked us up at our appointed meeting time and whisked us back to their place.

It was so good to see them both, enjoy our first BBQ in 6 weeks, and have a good old talkfest. Dessert was bought in my honour!