DATE: Wednesday 9 August, 1995
PLACE: Reading
WEATHER: Warm
REMARKS: More driving through English countryside, this
time to Stonehenge. An odd apparition in the middle of nowhere,
like a beehive. Tourists with cars and buses swarm about a
motley collection of stones set in the middle of nowhere.
We just pass by (albeit with a comfort stop) and head for
Longleat.
Again: magnificent sprawling grounds with lots of areas
of trees, usually of impressive proportions. We lunch under
an oak, in company with a number of persistent wasps -constant
accompaniment to outdoor food!
We opt for the Safari Park, and start to drive. Elephants,
giraffes (including a calf), zebra, llamas, long-horn cattle,
rhinos are all reclining in the heat. As are tigers (including
a white one), lions, wolves, and monkeys. The monkeys have
tiny young who are throwing themselves about with abandon,
while we begin to swelter. While following road-signs we pass
up the house and thereby the gorillas and hippos (by exit)
and exit.
Next is a winding, convoluted route to Avebury to visit
more stones. These are upright megaliths surrounded by a ditch
and mound. These are of impressive scale, given their age
and the tools with which they were made. The place is again
littered with tourists, many of them New Agers seeking to
commune and in various meditative poses, and wearing 'Search
for World Harmony 1995' tee-shirts. Harmless and entertaining.
We dine late - again.
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