6 min read

Very-nearly but Not-visiting Stonehenge

TEAM FIRE not-visited Stonehenge on a day trip the other day. We took a train from London Waterloo to Salisbury (around £36 return), then the X5 bus (£6.40 for day return) from Salisbury to Amesbury, and then walked from Amesbury and almost got to Stonehenge. This is an account of the non-visit to Stonehenge.

Salisbury

Salisbury and Amesbury both look very pleasant, amply catering to the tourism in the area. Hippy daytrippers and tourists with big cameras. Quaint cafes and people having their all day full english breakfast. We walked from the train station to a bus terminal a short distance away to take the X5 to Amesbury which was a little bit up north. From there our plan was to walk up to the highway and then to the left until we hit Stonehenge.

Stonehenge Road in Amesbury

This way to Stonehenge…

Crossing the river Avon on Queensberry Bridge which was built in 1775. The river brings water to the area and is thought to have been used to transport stone for Stonehenge.

This strange cow was staring at us. So we stared back at it.

There was a dead bird on the road.

I was very amused by these flowers growing everywhere. They seem to be some sort of wild orchid, but I had never seen such flowers before.

A small ladybug hitched a ride on George’s pant leg whilst we had stooped down to look at the orchids. It must have taken a yen to George’s trousers, because it could not be detached initially, causing some trauma as I didn’t know how to remove it without hurting it.

Another ladybug having a crawl on George’s hand.

We found another strange sight – a snail on another snail on a poppy flower?

The dandelions got more and more massive. They were even… crunchy? Made a raspy sound, they were so big.

The road was just ridiculously long.

Finally, Stonehenge came into view from the distance.

The approach by foot to Stonehenge via Amesbury does not lead you to a proper entrance, but rather a sheep gate. Basically they’ve built a massive fence around Stonehenge. Another important discovery we made as we finally got there at 6.30pm was that Stonehenge closes at 6pm. You must be thinking, how can Stonehenge close at 6pm, well before the sun sets? Well it does. It just does. I find it completely absurd that such a policy should stand. Its still there but someone says its shut at 6pm. It doesn’t mean you can’t walk up to Stonehenge or see it behind the fence, but the security won’t let you in, and attracted by us disturbing the sheep and walking up to fence, the security gravitated to us, as we pressed our sticky hands and faces between the gaps in the the human-sized fence.

We also bumped into some other eastern-european-sounding tourists trying to get in but also had been turned away.

Eventually I turned my attentions to chasing sheep. Unfortunately, sheep seem to be engineered to run away from people. So I did not get to touch any sheep.