Stone Henge, Avebury Stone Circle and Sherwood Forest.

Written 20^th July 2012

The next day we drove to where Stone Henge is and set up camp at a nice campsite in a nearby village called Shrewton. We were excited because there were little picnic tables there. (We don't have a table.)

We went to the supermarket at Amesbury and drove past Stone Henge on the way there and back. It looked lovely in the evening light. After we had cooked dinner we played 500 on the little table. Steve is trying to beat me but I am quite good at 500 as I have been playing for 20 years and he has only just learnt but he is picking up on some of my tricks. He is a pretty good player so far. It is not really fair either because I keep getting the joker most of the time! He nearly bet me the other day though!

The next morning we packed up and drove over to Stone Henge and payed to go in. I loved it! What an interesting place it is. It was cool because you got to have a audio guide which was interesting. A long time ago tourists could hire little hammers to chip a bit of the stone off as a souvenir! We also learn that the blue stones are warmer than the others no matter the weather and when we left there were 2 stones you could touch and we did think we could feel a difference. 

This is what it would have looked like originally.

After that we drove to Avebury which is another stone circle and I went for a look. It is another very interesting site. This one had a village half inside it and I think it is the biggest stone circle in Britain. (It does not have the top stones like Stone Henge though.) I was quite fascinated by it. I really wonder what is was all about but so far no one knows for sure. What a mystery! 

After that we drove and drove through the sunshine up north. We drove until we got to a place near Nottingham where my Granddad Eric grew up and where Robin Hood got up to mischief. When we arrived at the campsite (still sunny) the office was closed but it said if you arrived late then to pick a camp site from 2, 3, or 44. 2 and 3 were giant puddles and 44 was soggy as too but the best of the options so we chose that one. We had a readathon until some very loud people trudged into the campsite. They were a young man and woman arguing very loudly. We tried to keep reading but as usually happens in those situations we ended up eavesdropping instead. (Pretty hard not to when people are yelling their heads off about 10 metres away from your tent – not very good soundproofing in tents!) Eventually someone from in the campsite came over and tried to talk to them. We couldn't quite hear what was going on. The people had set up their tent partially and were still rowing. After a while though we saw them stomping off out of the campsite again with all their gear still bickering like angry chooks. Funnily enough the next morning we were over-run with chickens who wanted to be friends with us and share our breakfast. 

We found out that the day before there had been torrential rain in the region (before we arrived with the sun). Someone had even drowned in a falsh-flood! No wonder the campsite was soggy. We got packed up (Steve reading his new book at every opportunity) and eventually got on the road to Sherwood Forest to find the Major Oak for Sophie. 

When we got there it was a nice enough day and the forrest was nice. 

We set off for the Major Oak (A massive hollow oak tree when Robin and his man apparently hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham.) When we were nearly there it started bucketing down with rain! 

We had a look at the Major Oak in the rain and then sludged our way back in our mud-flicky jandals. I got quite a speckley coating up the back of my legs!