Day 24 - UK Trip

18 April 2011

We were very lazy this morning. I didn’t want to get out of bed and in fact I spent a good hour in bed with the laptop, making use of Fiona’s WiFi.

We sat and chatted over breakfast and then eventually left just before lunchtime.

We drove out of Bath and then last night's news hit me with a wallop. The thought of losing Whisky absolutely floored me. I felt so upset it was everything I could do not to throw up.

We drove through Bradford-on-Avon, which was just lovely. Strangely, one of the signboards outside some shops was for Piha Surf shop (I wonder if the owner’s a Kiwi?). We didn’t stop to find out. We drove onto Trowbridge where we stopped at the supermarket. It was a pretty average place in terms of character so we shopped and left. We drove on until we found a little woodland pull in and made ourselves some lunch.

Once again the weather was glorious, so we stood outside as we ate and soaked up the sun. There was another car parked when we arrived and at some point the owners appeared out of the woods with their dog. As per usual we cornered them so we could play with their dog.

Every dog that walks past us has to be patted by us and the owners just have to deal with us. And boy have we patted a lot of dogs!

After lunch we drove through the Salisbury Plain towards Stonehenge. The road to Stonehenge was closed off except for people wanting to visit the site. We’d had more than 1 person tell us it wasn’t worth the entry fee as it could be seen from the road so we weren’t that interested. However, I suggested we drive as far as we could and then turn around. We did just that but we could only see the top of it. Ah well, too bad.

We turned around and then took the diversion road. There we found ourselves coming to an almost standstill on the motorway only a couple of hundred metres or so parallel to Stonehenge. There were massive roadworks down the road and with all the holiday traffic we came to a virtual halt in exactly the right position to view the henge. I didn’t take photos or buy a t-shirt but I didn’t have to pay to see it either. Sweet!

And then we spent what I swear was the next hour crawling along the highway. Crazy, crazy having major roadworks on a motorway during the school holidays.

Our trip for the day was to visit a Rare Breeds Farm in Chalderton, just on the other side of Salisbury Plain. We arrived to find a packed car park and lots of signage aimed at kids. We were a little unsure of whether it was going to be a good spend of money but it was our trip of the day and so we went inside and asked the young girl behind the counter. She said that it was basically aimed at kids but there were lots of baby animals and educational signs about.

We have an interest in rare breeds so we paid our money and went in.

Wow, what do I say? It was nothing like what we’ve seen so far. The animal areas seemed quite run down and shabby and the enclosures only average size and very basic. It certainly wasn’t animal cruelty but there seemed to be no thought given to animal mental welfare.

Plenty of money was being spent but all on the kids play equipment. From playground, to ride on diggers and tractors. There were numerous play areas for the kids and yet the animals had nothing to stimulate them. The enclosures were bare empty spaces of either dirt or concrete and virtually nothing else.

It was little more than a child’s petting zoo of days gone by. There were kids everywhere so the place was making good money that day.

I honestly didn’t like the place but I guess it didn’t help that I had been feeling down in the dumps all day.

I did however discover one new interesting fact, Tamworth pigs only have 5-7 piglets per litter. I never knew that. This would explain why our dear Phyllis never has more than 7.

We left and made our way south. We drove through Salisbury and then down the left-hand side of the New Forest.

The first week of our holiday the spring growth had not yet sprung in the south. Now we’re back, it’s our 4th week and the trees and hedges are lush with bright green growth. The place looks completely different.

We drove into Ibsley Common and discovered cattle, donkeys and ponies wandering the roadside. One juvenile donkey wandered up to the car window and let me give him a good scratch. We might have stayed longer had there not been a car come up behind us.

We carried on to Rockford Common and saw more ponies and then left the New Forest and drove to the Forest Edge caravan park just out of Ringwood.  Once we’d paid and parked we discovered the place was packed full of families with young kids. It wasn’t really my thing and my mood didn’t help but in the end it was a stunningly warm day and so we spent the evening sitting outside until the sun went down.