Read about Ron & Viv's journey so far - England.
Some very old buildings along the foreshore at Lynmouth.
Viv in heaven in the chocolate hall in Harrods.
Ron beside an old blunder buster at Warwick Castle.
Ron beside the remains of what was once a pillar at the Roman fort of Vindolanda.
1st to 28th May 2008Arriving in UK
England
After our month in Africa we arrived at Heathrow, hired a vehicle and drove out to Frogs Island 4x4 Centre near Abingdon, just south of Oxford, where our Patrol was waiting for us.
Our travels in the UK were very ordinary and we kept coming back to Frogs Island as we got parts for our vehicle, to meet up with Helen and Neil, Rod and Kate our traveling companions for the next leg and to send and receive courier envelopes to and from different embassies.
We had a few hours wandering around the university city of Oxford – yep, it's a city with lots of colleges and unis. Then we spent a very pleasant afternoon at Blenheim Palace - lots of people and a £17.50 each entry fee. This was the birthplace and family home of Winston Churchill. Wandered the many open richly decorated rooms – the tapestries – 12 in all – each filling a high wall in many of the rooms were magnificent and showed the detail of the battle that won John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, the acclaim and his lands and this palace back in the 1704 when he beat the French at Blenheim. Being a long weekend there was a jousting exhibition on and we wandered down to check that out. That was a bit of fun and everyone enjoyed it. Then we wandered the extensive gardens and along the lake shore. The 11th Duke of Marlborough still lives in the Palace, occupying just one wing of the place.
To the South West
For a couple of days we enjoyed The New Forest, down in the south of England. Named and proclaimed by old King Harold in 1079, the place was his private hunting reserve, while King Henry V111 a few hundred years later stripped most of the big trees for his new navy that set England on the way to rule the waves. It's been protected in some form since those early days and it is now the UK's latest national park and one of the biggest, covering about 42,000 hectares. Much of the forest isn't forest at all but open heath land and while there are a number of villages within the forest it is a much more open, wilder part of country than elsewhere.
With over eight million visitors a year the place is crowded much of the time; people walking dogs, (What - in a national park!) riding horses, pedaling bikes, flying kites, playing footy (soccer), bird watching, admiring the wild horses (they don't look too wild but we were assured they were) and hill walking. All of this is of course within cooee of a bitumen road and a continuous thunder of traffic that ebbs and flows to and from the nearby cities - and the villages that lie within the park.
We took a day trip into nearby Portsmouth and finally found a car park close to the harbour that could fit our vehicle. Had a great day inspecting the HMS Victory , Nelson's famous flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 – it is still the flagship of the Royal Navy and kept in immaculate condition. We then spent some time looking at the drenched hull of King Henry 8 th 's warship the Mary Rose . The museum is probably better than the large air- conditioned building the hull is being preserved in, but it does show the length they have gone to, to preserve this old wreck.
From there we headed to Land's End. It was cold and misty when we got there - with its large car park and a few modern tourist shops, a pub and a few picture theatres. You basically have to walk through them to get to the viewpoint overlooking the coast where there is a ‘private' photo point with a signpost to ‘your town'. Wandered down to the last building – the ‘first and last shop' in England, but it was closed – the ‘tourist season' hasn't really started yet. A few people around though, even given the foggy cold weather. At least the weather had cleared enough to see a bit of the coast. Walking trails head off around the coast from here. There were a few signs of recent cliffs caving into the sea and many birds nest along the cliff front. Once again the sea looked clear and was relatively calm – the wind cold though as it was blowing from offshore.
Early the next morning we headed thru Barbrook to a car park beside the river in the village of Lynmouth. It has to be the most picturesque place we have seen in England! (See: www.lyntonandlynmouthscene.co.uk ).
We walked around the town which is a small village on the north Devon coast on a tiny inlet that is hemmed in by steep hills and situated at the junction of the normal placid East Lyn River and the more turbulent West Lyn River which pours out of Glen Lyn Gorge, just a few hundred metres back from the sea. Up the steep sided hill, almost directly above Lynmouth, is the near equal visually attractive village of Lyntown.
Some – well guidebooks anyway - say Lynmouth is commercialized and while the main street – all of 300 metres long at the most – and directly alongside the small walled harbour and stream is given over to souvenir and trinket shops, coffee, cake and sweet stalls, art outlets and a small museum, the Rising Sun Hotel built in the 14th Century adds a bit more credence to this Tudor village.
Mind you it has been a tourist destination since the late 1700s when the poets Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey and then romantic Shelley were inspired by this delightful place. Shelley actually stayed here with his new bride and wrote his romantic poems, but the situation is confused a little as two hotels in the town claim to be where the famous poet stayed. Maybe he visited twice – many, many people do!
The author RD Blackmore set his best selling 1800s novel, ‘Lorna Doone' (continuosuly in print since then) in the area while the more recent Ray Connolly has written ‘Love out of Season' based in the area. Called ‘England's Little Switzerland' by many tourist brochures, a term first coined back in the 18 th Century because of the steep hills and delightful forests and backed by what we know as the Exmoor National Park with its wild moors and equally wild horses the place has lost none of its charm. Maybe in this world of commercial and mechanical excess the place is even the more charming for it!
You don't go to Lynmouth for the beach though. The small bay the town is situated on is completely lined with wave-smoothed rocks, while the small wall-lined harbour dries at each and every low tide. As the sea begins to sweep into the lock-like enclosure fishermen load their boats, then sit in them as the water floods in amongst the mainly wooden craft. Within an hour the water is deep enough and the boats chug out for a day's fishing or for a scenic cruise – another delight on this rugged nears continuously cliff-lined Devon coast.
Back in August 1952 the town was near destroyed when a flood roared down the nearby rivers when 9” of rain had fallen over the surrounding area and nearby high moors. The water reached the roof of the Shelley Hotel – and that's bloody hard to believe! There were 8,000 tons of boulders left in the main street of Lynmouth while another 114,000 tonnes of debris was spread around the town after the flood had subsided. Many feared the town would never recover but 50 years later and you really wouldn't know – except for the displays in the local museum.
The Cliff Top railway that takes passengers just a few hundred metres to the uphill town of Lyntown is a beauty (see www.cliffrailwaylynton.co.uk ). Powered by water the uphill car takes on 700 gallons of water and then, with the handbrake released, the car begins to descend under its own weight, dragging the downhill car with its empty water tank up the hill. It's an ingenious solution that has been carrying passengers in quiet and undignified haste for over 120 years. For railway enthusiasts it's just another excuse to come to this magical little enclave. There's also the Lynton steam railway (see www.lynton-rail.co.uk ) and a short distance away in West Somerset there is the longer West Somerset Railway between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard. (see www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk ).
Drove out of town and across the Exmoor Moors where we crossed into Somerset and then even spied some of the famous Exmoor horses, which date back to the earliest horses in Europe.
Wound our way around back roads through to the historical village of Dunster, which was crowded with tourists so we couldn't find a park and we ended up on the outskirts of Minehead, a bigger town a short distance away.
Back tracked and had lunch in the delightful grounds at Dunster Castle which is right beside the medieval village of Dunster on the north-west coast of Somerset. Our family legend has it that this castle, which dates back to the Normans, was the original home of our ancestors, the Mohuns (this later became ‘Moon'). William the Conqueror rewarded his faithful knights and gave them land, often on the border of the country where they were responsible for controlling the border and keeping the people in check. The Luttrell family has owned the place for over 600 years and the castle has seen siege and surrender. Today it is no longer a fortress, having been remodeled in the 19 th century (but it was a fort for over 1000 years) and now it is a fine Victorian home with grand views, delightful interiors and magnificent gardens. It was being worked on when we were here and much of the castle was draped in some form of protective plastic cloth!
The castle though sits on a single conical hill overlooking the nearby river flats. Today the hill is quite vegetated but was probably cleared back in the early days to give a clear field of view. The village has grown and is now right up to the castle walls in one part.
On our way up to meet with Neil and Helen we stopped in and had a look at Stonehenge that was a little crowded as it was a beautiful day. Paid our way in and wandered around the stone arrangement, which is around 3500 years old and were worth a stop.
London
Headed into London and camped at Abbey Wood Caravan park which is about a 35-minute train ride from Trafalgar Square. Yep, London's a big city – bitumen, concrete, big buildings, old buildings, cathedrals a few old bridges and towers and museums.
Ron had been there a few times before but it was Viv's first visit so we took a bus tour – Geez this is not us! But at least it took in all the famous sites and you get an idea of what there is to see. Trafalgar Square was busy with lots of people, especially French people – I wonder if they really realize the whole square and Nelson's Column is about being beaten by the British yet again!
Next day we toured the Tower and was most impressed with the Crown Jewels. The Tower is more a large castle but the ‘White Tower' in the heart of the castle is the main and oldest building there, dating back to William the Conqueror and 1070. The armoury and horse armour were pretty good as were some of the ‘experimental' weapons – including a steam fired small calibre gun.
After that we caught the cruise boat for the trip down the Thames to Westminister and Westminister Abbey .
That was about enough for us so we headed out of town but we came back a few days later to check out the British Museum , which is a bit over whelming, and then Harrods , where we didn't really get out of the Food Hall or the watch section. Viv certainly enjoyed looking at the amazing array of food that was on offer, and the chocolate hall was huge.
Had a couple of nights with our Ron's cousin Clive and his wife Tricia and then headed down to see Clive's brother Keith and his wife Mary. Had a great day out with their family before heading back to Frogs Island.
Heading North
Headed to Chipping Norton, ‘Chipping' meaning back in the old days a ‘market'. Drove through and headed for Chipping Campden a little further north and both within the Cotswalls. Wandered around the pleasant little town and took a few pics of the place. It's a typical Cotswall village. Got to Stratford-on-Avon and parked the car in the local cricket club where an Aussie is the groundsmen for each summer – you find them everywhere!
Took a half hour cruise on the river – hardly worthwhile as you didn't see much – a few upmarket houses downstream and up to the cathedral upstream – and then back to the wharf. Still it was pleasant enough. The small people ferry across the river is a beauty – and old!
We then headed for Warwick Castle and spent the next few hours wandering the castle, its palatial rooms, it walls and surrounding gardens. The rooms are really done up well with life size wax figures (the castle is owned by Madam Trousseaus waxworks!) and really tell a story. It is excellent.
As we got away from the crowded industrial Midlands we got into more rolling picturesque country. The highway parallels the Ouse River through the Vale of York . Dry stone walls divided the small farm paddocks, a number of which were planted with the rich yellow of flowering canola , the most we had seen since the southwest of England. We slipped into Northumberland and wound our way through hills and dales, passing some big manor houses and old castles to our camp. Stopped at a small farm operated campsite – Wellhouse Farm - just east of Corbridge and south of Hadrian's Wall, where we caught up with Rod and Kate and Neil and Helen.
Visited Vindolanda – an important Roman fort and village on Hadrian's Wall (built to keep the savage Scots at bay and to mark the boundary of the great Roman empire) about 20km west of our camp. The archaeological dig here has been going on since the 1920 but the great finds came in the 1970s when they discovered some writing tablets. The finds, which includes a lot of normally lost items such as shoes, hair, leather and wood goods, have continued ever since, making this the most important British history site in the UK and the biggest discovery of Roman written works in the world – everything from ordering of supplies, to letters amongst friends, to military reprimands and more. There was a group doing a ‘dig' on a section of the ruins – what was once an important and large house just outside the fort proper. Led by a trained archaeologist the group were mainly volunteers. By all accounts they find up to 80 coins a month, dozens of shoes and lots of other stuff. Much of that or the best of it is in the nearby Museum.
It was here we realized that since we had arrived in Egypt we had been in, in what was the ancient Roman Empire all the time! It was a long way from Rome to the far-flung extremities of the great empire!!!
At Budle Bay Caravan Park we set up camp for the long weekend – camps were in short supply over this very busy, first-of-summer long weekend so we had decided to stay put. The park was crowded but it worked out fine. The inlet that Bundle Bay is on is near all mudflats and the tide stays out for long time. You can see the castle on Holy Island up the coast from near here and the area is quite picturesque given the water of the inlet (muddy as it is) the white of the few small coastal dunes, the deep rich green of most of the paddocks, broken by the rich bright yellow of the canola and the deeper duller yellow of patches of wild gauze.
Met a young kid from the camp across the road – he was a ‘real' ‘Dennis the menace'. His conversation with Kate was typical:
“What country do you come from?”
“ Australia,” says Kate.
“What language do you speak there?”
“English,” replies Kate
“You don't speak it very well!”
When I think back he tried to find out what country I came from, but I couldn't understand him – though he spoke English too!!!
Nearby is the village of Bamburgh and Bamburgh Castle. Perch on a lofty promitory right on the coast the castle dominates the surrounding area. The castle was extensively rebuilt in the 1800s, even though one has been here since the 11 th Century. The Vikings sacked it a few times then during the wars between Scotland and England it was given a bit of a hammering to!
Holy Island is a little further north along the coast. Reached by a long causeway, which gets flooded every high tide, the island and its church has been a place of pilgrimage since about 634AD. There are the ruins of a church there (it was sacked a few times by the Vikings and the monks then left) as well as a Lindisfarne Castle on a prominent rock hill overlooking the inlet the village of Lindisfarne is situated on. Boy, is this place on the tourist circuit. We thought it was busy when we arrived and parked in the car park. When we were due to leave and had our lunch in the car park, the park was full to the brim and cars were parking down the road further away from the village.
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Link to Picture Gallery Page for UK.
Ron outside Benheim Palace.
Our Camp in the New Forest.
Ron on the deck of the HMS Victory.
Ron & Viv at Land's End.
Ron beside one of the magnificent lions at Nelson's statue in Trafaglar Square, London.
Ron with his cousin Keith at the gravesite of his grandfather.
The picturesque Cotswall village of Chipping Campden.
View to the Priory on Holy Is.
