Saturday 21 May 2005
Today we left London for Dartmoor. We collected our rental car, a Vauxhall Corsa (sold in NZ as the Holden Barina) and drove on the M4, crawled along the M25, then drove out to the Basingstoke round-a-bout (which is somewhere in the vicinity of Guildford).
After stopping for fuel and some groceries we had lunch at McDonalds. We choose a burger called a McTasty, which turned out to be a Mc-not-to-our-taste-y, but we did enjoy the oppurtunity to have an item not available in New Zealand.
After getting back on the highway we travelled along some secondary roads towards Salisbury. Along the way I saw signs warning of deer crossing. At first I thought the cahnces of wild deer running across framland, jumping the roadside fence and crossing the road were remote, but a doe ran out in front of us just missing a car coming the other way.
After a few hours we came to Salisbury - it has a magnificent medievil Cathedral that dominates the town. We missed the northward highway so had to come back for a second viewing while going to Stonehenge.
Chaucey thought Stonehenge was smaller than she expected. I had no preconception about size but had thought that it was circular - the inner ring is actually horseshoe shaped. Stonehenge is 4500 years old so rivals the Egyptian pyramids in age and predates Druids by 1000 years, so it's actual purpose is lost.
Finally, we drive onto Dartmoor. The road from Stonehenge to Exeter was narrow and slow, but once we got to the M5 it was dual carraige-way the whole distance so we made up time. The speed limit is 70mph (115km) but if you travel at 70 you only catch up on little old ladies - most people do 90mph and the odd boy racer flys by at 120mph.
After arriving at our cottage we headed down a narrow country lane to the Horse and Groom for dinner. Dessert was Pavlova, a very nice raspberry pav. Afterwards we went back to the cottage and watched the Eurovision Song contest until I fell asleep on the couch.
After stopping for fuel and some groceries we had lunch at McDonalds. We choose a burger called a McTasty, which turned out to be a Mc-not-to-our-taste-y, but we did enjoy the oppurtunity to have an item not available in New Zealand.
After getting back on the highway we travelled along some secondary roads towards Salisbury. Along the way I saw signs warning of deer crossing. At first I thought the cahnces of wild deer running across framland, jumping the roadside fence and crossing the road were remote, but a doe ran out in front of us just missing a car coming the other way.
After a few hours we came to Salisbury - it has a magnificent medievil Cathedral that dominates the town. We missed the northward highway so had to come back for a second viewing while going to Stonehenge.
Chaucey thought Stonehenge was smaller than she expected. I had no preconception about size but had thought that it was circular - the inner ring is actually horseshoe shaped. Stonehenge is 4500 years old so rivals the Egyptian pyramids in age and predates Druids by 1000 years, so it's actual purpose is lost.
Finally, we drive onto Dartmoor. The road from Stonehenge to Exeter was narrow and slow, but once we got to the M5 it was dual carraige-way the whole distance so we made up time. The speed limit is 70mph (115km) but if you travel at 70 you only catch up on little old ladies - most people do 90mph and the odd boy racer flys by at 120mph.
After arriving at our cottage we headed down a narrow country lane to the Horse and Groom for dinner. Dessert was Pavlova, a very nice raspberry pav. Afterwards we went back to the cottage and watched the Eurovision Song contest until I fell asleep on the couch.
posted by Michael at
7:53 AM
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