Wessex Stone Circles 1 - 0 Silesian Coal Mines


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Europe » United Kingdom » England » Wiltshire » Avebury
November 28th 2009
Published: November 30th 2009
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So, I was planning to spend this weekend in Katowice as I booked a £2 RyanAir return a few months back, coinciding with what I thought might be another show in Prague, but this turned out not to happen. However some important uni commitments came up and tbh, I can't really afford to spend 4 days in a city where I know no one and didn't fancy sleeping rough in the forest in the bleak Silesian midwinter.

Instead I took one day off uni and with this rather wonderful character Jitka (who hadn't left London in months - something which I believe to be seriously dangerous to one's health), headed down to Avebury, a place my friend Gabriela recommended to me due to its high energy, ancient stone circles and rather spectacular "natural" features.

It was a very clear and calm, but cold day and as we spent all day walking around outdoors on top of hills, we really felt it. The irritation of public footpaths and bridleways is thankfully quite sparse and relaxed in this area, with paths leading between fields but also an obvious agreement (from the footprints in the mud) that people can walk along the edge of any field which they can enter without jumping fences. This meant we were able to spot landmarks in the distance and simply walk towards them without much bother. After seeing the stones, we headed towards these clumps of trees which we could see in the distance which were very interesting indeed, when we got there, just a random clump of sublimely arranged, very curly trees neither of us could properly identify sat atop perfectly shaped mounds.

These had obviously at one point been fenced off, but the fence lay abandoned on the ground so we found this to be a perfect spot to sit and meditate. Afterwards, we walked back and then in the opposite direction parallel to the stone circle to find Silbury Hill, another sublimely shaped mound - except about 20 metres tall, and without any trees. Nothing I've read can properly explain how it came to be so perfect.. it is a truly surreal sight.

We slipped down another path which probably used to be a stream by the look of it, leading back to the car park and then to the pub with the bus stop outside. We waited there with some food and beer and, as the pub was in the middle of the stone circle, also found it a good place to meditate. We spent a long time getting back to Swindon thanks to the Christmas lights show in Devizes holding the buses up, and longer still getting back to London because of signalling problems, but hey, what is any trip in England on public transport without any of this?

Definitely recommend visiting Avebury if you're into sitting and breathing.

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