Map reference SU
00448 61832
Distance 0 miles
Total 173 Locks 7 Tunnels
Running total mileage 179.2
Today was a day off from Narrow-boating for a trip to
Avebury, and a fascinating trip it was. Unlike the more famous Stonehenge which
seems to have been fully sanitised in that you walk around the boundary fence
dutifully admiring the stones, at Avebury, a far bigger construction, you
actually walk among the stones. This give a far greater feel for the size of
them and the enormity of the task of constructing them into a circle given the
limited tools that were available at the time (4,400 years ago). The full walk
that we made encompassed the Avebury stone circle, Overton Hill barrows (not
quite so impressive, West Kennet barrow (which WAS impressive and more than
made up for the disappointment of Overton Hill) and finally Silbury Hill
alongside the A4 road. This looks like one of the old coal mining slag heaps but the work that would have gone into
building it almost defies belief, again given the limited tools that were
available. It seems amazing that during this period (over 4000 years ago)
throughout the world different cultures were all apparently pointlessly moving
massive stones around, Egypt with the pyramids, France with the standing stones
at Carnac and here in the UK at Stonehenge and Avebury, what WAS going on!
Also included in the
walk, as a sort of by-product was a stroll along part of The Ridgeway National
Trail (OK only about 1 mile of it out of
the 87 available miles). Hope to return
later to complete the other 86 miles.
Tomorrow will be a chance to look around Devizes before
moving on by Friday towards Seend taking in the impressive Caen Hill Flight.
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