Tim's UK Safari - June 2000

Yesterday (Saturday) Lucy and I decided to go shopping. By chance, we walked into a bookshop where I decided to head first for the computer books and then to the history/archeology section. It didn't take me too long to realise that the books on offer were far too expensive to purchase on a whim. Lucy met me at this history section after picking up a few books for herself, she noticed a book on the history "discount table" that she thought I would like. It was titled Longitude - "The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time". Seeing as the book looked interesting and was only £3.50 I thought I could do no worse and purchased the book.

I started reading it that night and couldn't put it down until I had finished it, I found it to be an amazing story and certainly gave me a perspective of just how clever this guy was.

Without going to far into the problem, Longitude was causing a huge problem for ships and their captains, a method for determining Latitude by use of the stars had already been figured out, but Longitude was proving to be a problem. Essentially to figure out Longitude you needed to know the time at a known longitude and the difference in time for yourself. This required clocks, good clocks, the error of most timepieces at the time was anywhere up to 15 minutes a day. The rotation of Jupiter's moon was one possible solution put forward but was difficult as jupiter's moons were not all that easy to track all the time.

At this point we welcome to history Mr. John Harrison a self taught Yorkshire clockmaker who over forty years of his life devoted himself to making the perfect timekeeper, which he managed to do and earned himself the £20,000 reward. Most of this story is centered in Greenwich where John Harrison spent a large number of his years. Also at Greenwich are the four Harrison timepieces kept at the Greenwich Royal Observatory.

As such, it came as a complete surprise to me when Lucy suggested we take a day trip out to Greenwich. I naturally agreed - thinking how great it would be to see the Harrison clocks (named H1 to H4). It took us a little over an hour to make our way out there by train. Unfortunately my digital camera batteries dies on me, so I feel a little guilty about not posting that many pictures...

This red ball on top of the observatory rises up then drops down at midday every day, this was how ships in the harbour set their clocks before setting out

The Cutty Sark, sits in dry dock.

What was funny for me was walking around a town I had never been too but recognising street names, building names and understanding the layout of the town all from a £3.50 book. I had my photo taken (on my "normal" camera) standing over the international date line before touring the observatory. It a very interesting place but I felt that my enjoyment of it was mainly due to the fact that I had some knowledge of it's history. Unfortunately we had to leave all too soon but this is another thumbs up! It's a shame that we didn't get longer to look around and I don't think I'll be heading back this way during the rest of my trip. Still, if your ever in the area I urge you to seriosly consider dropping in and having a look around.

Today was fantastic! We headed out to visit Stonehenge and a few other historical sites that lie nearby. First we headed for Salisbury, originally known as New Sarum, apparently the story goes that Old Sarum was occupied up to five thousand years ago before being developed into an Iron Age fort, it was settled by Romans and Saxons before the Norman bishopric of Sherbourne was moved there in the 1070s. Within a couple of decades a new Cathedral had been consecrated and a large religious community was living alongside the soldiers in the central castle. Apparently Old Sarum was an uncomfortable place for the clergy both due to the high winds and problems with the neighboring castle occupants. In 1220 they appealed to the Pope for permission to decamp to New Sarum (Salisbury). When permission was granted they left and the kind castle occupants quickly ripped apart the monastery to use the stones/materials to improve their own buildings.

On the way out of Salisbury we noticed a signpost pointing us to the original Old Sarum Castle, we decided it would be an interesting place to visit. We weren.t disappointed; there are essentially two ruins here the first being the hilltop fort and the second being the cathedral which is on the lower plain.

There.s not much left of the cathedral as you could imagine, the destruction by the castle occupants was quite comprehensive. What remains, however, is still interesting; it.s pretty much what we would describe as the foundations although a cellar still exists. On the right you can see a photo of the remains of the Cathedral, this photo was taken from the castle at the top of the hill, there.s essentially a hill within a hill, offering the castle two protective barriers from possible attacks.

The Castle/Royal palace ruins were far more impressive, although about 80% of the original structure is gone (removed to Salisbury for building material when the Castle was finally abandoned). The Castle was protected by a moat that is still there; naturally a new (safe) bridge has been constructed on the east side of the moat (originally there was a second bridge on the west side).

In the photo on the left I.m standing in front of the ruins of the Royal Palace at Old Sarum. The palace consisted of four ranges around a central courtyard and contained royal apartments and two chapels. I found it totally amazing to think that this ruin dates back to the Iron Age! It.s exciting to look around the place then compare the ruins to the drawings of how the place originally looked. It really makes you appreciate just how huge the place was. I couldn.t shake the feeling that hundreds of people lived their entire lives within this single area.

After Old Sarum we headed out to Stonehenge. I.ve always wanted to visit this place although I had read enough to be prepared for a crappy tourist attraction. How wrong I was, there were hundreds of people around but hats-off to the operators of the place, they have managed the site very well, nobody is able to walk between the stones as a small rope fence keeps you away from it. But you do get close enough for the stones to completely fill your viewfinder on your camera, an added advantage of not allowing people to walk through the stones is that your photos are of Stonehenge by itself, it.s extremely easy to take a photo the makes you look like you were the only one there.

The operators also provide you with a free audio device that allows you to learn about the history of the place (albeit they admit they don.t really know what it.s was for). For the three to four pounds we paid to get in, I have no complaints what so ever. In future they are going to move the highway that is close-by to further enhance the site. What I didn.t realize was there are hundreds of burial mounds all around the site; in fact the horizon is dotted with them.

This was a big buzz for me, I.ve always wanted to see the stones but didn.t really know what they were about, after we left Lucy and I tried to put our own thoughts together. Lucy felt that it was definitely a calander, whereas I believed that it must have a religious connection. Then presto, the Blanks theory was developed, my theory is it.s a device that marks the day and month that a person died, when the morning of the day occurs, the stones point to the burial mound of the person who died. Naturally, I have no facts to back this up, but that.s what I believe anyway.

After Stonehenge, we headed up the road to visit Woodhenge, this is a site similar to Stonehenge, but was built out of wood (the original Stonehenge was also constructed this way before being "upgraded" to stone). This site is a little more tourist friendly as you can actually walk among the concrete markers signifying where the original posts were. In the middle there is a Childs grave, my guidebook explained that the Childs skull had been split in two signifying a ritual sacrifice! Fortunately we were the only two people there, so we had a chance to look around without being bothered. Well worth a look-see if you.re in the area and have time but nowhere near as impressive as Stonehenge.

We then headed off towards Avebury as my guidebook pointed out that it "stands in the midst of a stone circle that rivals Stonehenge". Whilst on the way I noticed a large crop circle in the field on our left, I asked (pleaded) with Lucy to pull over and proceeded to drag her up the hill and into the field.

This was my first crop circle and I have to admit that although I believe they are (more than likely) fakes. I still find the whole thing extremely interesting. In the photo on the right you can see Lucy in the middle of the crop circle with Silbury Hill in the background, it.s man made and is 130ft tall, constructed totally by hand in approximately 2600 BC. Nobody knows what it.s for or why it.s there - freaky.

On the other side of the hill (away from the road), I noticed a number of Stonehenge type rocks, in fact, what we had stumbled across was the "West Kennet Long Barrow" - a barrow (burial mound/cave) that was built approximately 2300 BC and held up to 51 bodies at one time (they now have been removed to a museum).

You can actually walk inside the barrow for about 15 meters or so (which we did). It.s kind of freaky as you are literally walking in one of the world.s oldest crypts

We then headed off to our original destination Avebury unfortunately my digital camera packed in at this stage due to bad batteries (will bring more next time). But I did get some photos with my normal camera, when developed I.ll post one up here. The stone circle was impressive, but nowhere near as exciting as everything else we.ve seen today. I have to disagree with the Rough Guide on this one. The Avebury circles are pretty boring and resemble a large garden border, albeit the stones are huge!

We headed home after this, but today was a fantastic day, I highly recommend this trip to anyone who finds himself or herself over this way!

Greetings from the UK, I've been absolutely hammered for not getting any information up here earlier, allow me to explain... Getting a phone line connected has been an absolute nightmare, I only managed to get it connected last Friday!! So for all you who think I have been avoiding you (Biz and Stu) relax, I can communicate now. We moved into our flat on the 3rd and have got it how we want it finally.

Most of the past week has involved trying to get online and catching up with some work for Planetel along with dealing with the various government agencies that want money from us. I can't get over the tax's you have to pay here -- council tax is fair enough (although extremly excessive). However, what I couldn't get over is the £120 odd tax for, wait for it, a TV licence! I asked what the licence entitles us to, apparently "it's too allow the BBC to provide us with their high quality programming.." HA! Have you ever seen East Enders!?!? Who do they think they are kidding??

Perhaps it went into making the program I saw the other night, it was aptly titled "Naked Jungle" -- a gameshow which has a bunch of (horrible) middle-aged men and women nudists running around a fake jungle collecting fig-leafs, the couple with the most lig-leafs wins, high quality programming my ass.

Enough of that, yesterday Lucy and I drove out to a place known as The New Forest (not to be confused with the Naked Forest). I took along my (now loved) England - The Rough Guide, this book is great, if it comes along a town or place that is crappy, it tells you so, unlike the Lonely Planet that looks for good things, this one focuses on what you'll actually get. Neither of us knew exatly how to get to the New Forest so we headed down the M4 and hopped for the best, as you would expect we got a little lost and decided to pull into Southampton. Before I continue with my experiences of Southampton, I'll quote a passage from the Rough Guide.

..unfortunately, since it's pummelling by the Luftwaffe and some disastrous post-war planning, the thousand-year-old city has changed beyond reconition. Now a sprawling conurbation easily bypassed by motorways, it'll be pretty low on your list of places to visit in Southern England..

Joy!  Actually, to be honest it was nice to see the place where the Titanic left for her maiden voyage, and the Mayflower set sail for America, but the place was a hole. There was a chance for it as the ruins of the original city walls are there, but they have done very little to show them off or to develop the area properly. I have to agree with the Rough guide on this one, a big thumbs down.

After downing a beer in the local we headed off to find the heart of the New Forest, a town known as Lyndhurst I was actually looking forward to seeing the place as it got a good write up in the guide, I decided to look up lyndhurst and see what they had to say about it;

LYNDHURST, its town centre skewered by an agonizing one-way system, isn't a particularly interesting place ... it's mainly valuable for the resources of the New Forest Museum & Visitor Centre in the central car park off the High Street...

I put the book away for the rest of the day... Funny thing is I noticed it's not available in any of the local bookshops in these small towns. Lyndhurst was disappointing, although the surrounding area is very nice. I wouldn't exactly call it a forest, it actually looks like a scrubb area. The amount of wildlife needs to be seen to be believed. They have wild horses all over the place, and you need to be careful when driving as they are always on the side (or middle) of the road eating the grass/shrubs.

We're planning on coming back here for a weekend to do some walking or riding as it looks like a good place to get away from it all. We also toured though Beaulieu and Lymington on the way back. Lymington is the town that saved the trip it has a fantastic harbour that has the original town right on the edge, complete with the cobbled streets and Georgian houses. We had a Devonshire Tea here which was nice as they used real cream for once!! We set off back home after this. We're hoping to visit Stonehenge next weekend.

Thats it for now, will make another update shortly. Take care!