2203 Avebury

Caught the train to Swindon and then a double decker bus to Avebury. The bus ride took half an hour mostly through countryside with us sitting up the top in the front seat. Saw one of the many white horses on a hillside but was very disappointed to discover that it was made in the 18th century. I remember being quite excited by the white horses when I was hitchhiking around in 1970 thinking that they were stone age – what a let down. The only truly ancient white horse is the Uffington white horse which we might see tomorrow.

Avebury is a village surrounded by a Stone Circle. It is quite close to Stonehenge but it is much quieter and visitors can roam around the stones unlike at Stonehenge which had to be protected from tourists loving it to death. We walked the mile and a half to Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe and therefore in the world. Our Lonely Planet guide said that there is a burial mound to the south of Silbury Hill. Steve and I did the pointing 12 o'clock at the sun and dissecting the angle to the hour to find north trick but we forgot we were in the northern hemisphere and we were only 180º out. Fortunately we did this contemplation while sitting on a stile eating sandwiches and had woken up by the time we were ready to walk the further mile. The mound is called West Kennet Long Barrow and is on top of a hill overlooking the surrounding fields. There were 46 bodies found here buried over a 1 000 year period, with the oldest being 5 500 years old. The entrance has two huge stones and the roof has a huge slab of rock for a roof. In fact, the whole tomb is built with huge stones and covered with soil and grass. It is about 150 metres long.

We heard two Wiltshire folk tales. One was centred around the burial Barrow and goes like this. At spring equinox, a man stands at the entrance to the barrow and looks towards the east to guide the souls of the dead. The other was centred around Silbury Hill and tells of the fayres which live in the mound. Apparently if you sit on top of the mound at midnight you might hear the fayres in the mound. If they invite you to join them and you do, an hour spent with them would be more like losing a year of your life.

This area has thatch roofs which makes a change from the slate tiles of the north.

This is also the area where crop circles started turning up and were blamed on aliens. Now the farmer who started making the crop circles has come out of the woodwork and they are part of the tourist attractions. The area has no stone walls or hedges dividing fields up into smaller paddocks. Farming is more of the broadacre variety so there is plenty of space to make crop circles. What a “mad” idea.

I love it how people travel on buses and trains with their dogs. Don't know if this is even allowed in Australia.

We are doing well eating on the cheap by stocking up in supermarkets before catching the bus back to the YHA.