Salisbury, Stonehenge and Somewhere Special
Thursday, June 25th, 2009by Rachael
Looe, England
There’s a famous cathedral in Salisbury, and while we could see the spire from our Parking Spot For The Night, we thought it would be nice to see it in its entirety. Usually we would have walked to it – didn’t look more than a couple of kilometres away – but we knew wer already had a full day of driving ahead (due to Mrs Non-Techno-Gadget Lady having used the GPS to determine route distances, but having done it incorrectly – let’s just say the crow flies a lot straighter than the roads round here – and so leaving us with some mega-drives, which don’t leave much time for looking at things on the way, cooking dinner when we arrive and washing clothes or finding fresh milk). And so on this occasion the executive decision was made to drive past on our way out of town.
Well, we tried. We saw school-uniformed children carrying musical instruments, we saw enormous pots filled with flowers, we saw an old stone gate across a street, we saw cute little storybook houses and pubs and shops – and we saw the cathedral steeple. Perhaps influenced by Constable, we had imagined an open space around the monument, but it just ain’t that way. The town crowds it on all sides – and judging by the look of the buildings, has done so for a very long time. There was no way to Womos were going to get any closer than a sneak peak. So Grandpa walkie-talkied from the front van, “View coming up above the wall” and Aunty hung out the back van trying to take photos. At least we got a story! After two attempts, we admitted defeat and pointed our vans in the direction of Stonehenge.
We can guess and we can presume, we can calculate and we can conjecture, but we will never know. We can see what is there today. We can understand that the seasons are inextricably linked to the structure, and we can have myths and legends surrounding the behemoth monument. But we do not know WHY Stonehenge is and was. Stonehenge is a good starting point for discussions about limitations of knowledge and differences between facts and assumptions. Set in the Salisbury Plain, it’s also a not bad place for photos and provided a very well done audio tour.
Then we drive and drive and drive. Over hill and dale, through countryside that I totally don’t see. Not being the most confident driver around, my eyes do not veer far from the white lines on the roads where squashed rabbits, hedgehogs, badger, birds and even a deer lie. Occasionally I flick my eyes upwards to ensure overhanging branches will not pick up one of the bikes off the roof.
Somerset….Devon….Cornwall – apparently it is all very pretty. On our first day in England we had pulled over to admire the view – we need to do it more often. When there’s room, that is. Take a look at how we fill the road on our last leg today:
(Actually, the picture is taken tomorrow on our way out again, but, believe me, the lane had not widened an inch overnight!)
Up the 17% hill (that’s steep, really steep, go-up-in-first-gear-steep), turn right at the animal sanctuary and go down the hill. Rob had real fun on this road today with a police car behind him and meeting oncoming obviously-non-reversing-able traffic….Bear Cave and Mr Plod had to reverse back to a slightly wider stretch for a squeezy manoeuvre (it will be my turn tomorrow!)
The gate was open, but even still we did not fit through. It had to be completely removed to allow us passage – there was JUST room to squish on to the white and grey pebbled driveway.
Our stopping spot for the night commanded perhaps one of the most spectacular views of all southern Cornwall – straight out across tall grass fields, over a haha, past short grass fields filled with sheep and horses to the sea, the village of Looe tumbling over the headland in the distance. Just beautiful.
At our feet the children were discovering frogs and five different grasses, some taller than themselves – plus a stone tiger hiding up a hill and the black and white Cornish flag flying from the rooftop, and we learnt that Cornwall is the only English county to have their own flag.
We were surely somewhere very very special.
Time on the road: need to check Jboy13’s record!
Distance covered: 287km
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rayres