Avebury

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Today we were off to see the really old stuff – the standing stones of Avebury and Stonehenge. Avebury, the largest henge in Britain, is much more accessible than Stonehenge and you can actually wander right amongst the stones and touch them too. There are lots of stones still standing and many missing as the early Christians in the area believed the site was related to the devil so they started pulling the stones down. One crushed a man as it fell so they thought the devil was annoyed and stopped pulling them down. It is a fascinating place even if not as monumental as Stonehenge. There were a bunch of strange folks holding some ceremony and all meditating at one point, with one guy crawling and slapping the ground – brave considering there is lots of sheep, and a corresponding amount of poo. We wandered around the stones and then found our way into the Manor grounds. A lovely little area with benches and gardens so we sat down to have our lunch. They even had a couple of pedal powered toy tractors which Em liked riding. The village is also lovely with just a few houses and a church.

As we had heard that you could see just as much from the highway as from the walkway at Stonehenge, we decided a drive-by might suffice. When we got near, there had been an accident near the entry to the carpark so traffic was backed up for about 3 or 4km. We got a great view from the highway and you can see the people wandering around the outside of the barriers just off the main road. Why pay £15 to get only about 100m closer than the highway and still a long way from the stones? The view really is no better!

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