NOTES FROM MUD ISLAND PART 5

Wednesday 8th September

We thought we had it sussed with our anti-rain manoeuvres the night before, however, as we neared Stonehenge, the rain began to drizzle down and the sky just fuzzed over with grey.
I'll load Karen's photos later onto the Mud Island album but you'll see how washed out the day looks compared with the brightness of Avebury.
Without the benefit of a GPS unit and with the added confusion of a primary and secondary navigator (Tracy and Paul respectively), the meandering route to Stonehenge was very interesting and I cannot recall how many villages we passed through. Many. A lot. Plenty. Loads. Millions even...
As we suspected a few days ago, we're certainly in Star Wars territory as we noticed a Wookie Hole then there was Chew Magna which must be a local misspelling of Chewbacca, the most famous Wookie of all time thanks to George Lucas. Sightings of some locals confirmed that there were indeed aliens in our midst although they had shed their body hair in an attempt to blend in with the resident humans. It didn't work. We could see which were which.
Stonehenge was blustery and miserable with hordes of Asian, Dutch and German tourists whom I thought to be incredibly rude as they weren't at all interested in the sacred ancient monolithic structure but simply stood around listening on their mobiles.
As I neared I realised they were all using the informative audio devices to gain an insight into the monument and its history.
Ah how quickly technology reduces us to looking more like morons every day.
Karen braved the rain while I meandered back to the car to munch snacks with Robin & Tracy and grumble about the weather but as Robin so sagely observed: "If you wait for weather to clear in this country, you'll never go anywhere ever - you just do it and hope for the best..."
How true this proved to be for a short trip to Avebury found us in a totally different climate with bright blue skies and puffy cumulus clouds overhead. And, it has to be said, a totally different vibe - a much more pleasant one where you can walk among the standing stones and actually touch them. I realise that allowing public access to Stonehenge would reduce it to a vandalised ruin within months (well it would in South Africa in any event) but the knowledge of the millions of feet that have trodden the grass perimeter some way distant from the trilithons, sarsens and blue stones ahead of me just seemed to dampen my enthusiasm along with the grey weather. No disrespect to the Druids, hippy people and other space cadets who tramp the Stonehenge mystic pathway to whatever it is they get from it and I am as taken by the miraculousness of the solar alignment of the site and all that represents - but it just wasn't inspiring today. It sucked.
Avebury, on the other hand, was peaceful, warm, uplifting and had a much better goodies shop with the prospect of crop circle visits (all laid out on a map). Unfortunately, all the demarcated circles had been lost in the recent harvesting but we got the number of a local guide who checks up on the latest occurrences as and when they appear. May check that out on another visit. Has to be done.
The whole place was amazingly imbued with a profoundly placid energy which seemed to set our mood for the way home.
As usual, the gemstones and crystals were minutely inspected by Karen who bought a crystal skull - in the form of an alien Grey no less. Which only goes to prove that they do actually exist after all but I had no idea they were that small. Perhaps there are Martian headshrinkers just like we had here on old Terra.
Perhaps my need for food at that time had kicked in - either way, it was another fabulous day out with the most interesting simulacra on display all around us.
And our sixty odd quid on the National Trust membership for the year has paid for itself in the last 2 days - brilliant.
Tomorrow we have booked for a half day spa and some self-indulgent pampering back in Yatton.
Ah well - what is life for but to enjoy it?
Goo goo ga joob...