Road Trip 3: Key Haven to Bristol

After Stonehenge we were stuck in traffic and arrived much too late at our friend’s house in the little village of Key Haven on the Solent.  Fortunately Tazeena is very generous and took our late arrival in stride.  Tazeena has the most fabulous house overlooking the water. It is her family home and she has lived there off and on for over 70 years.  I could have sat in her kitchen forever watching the boats go up and down the straits.

Boating heaven

We had a delightful two days with Tazeena.  She is a great host and a remarkable and inspiring person, though she would cringe if she heard me say so.  I am so glad we met her in Marmaris and were able to visit her in England and looking forward to spending more time with her in the second half of the season.  

We had a quick visit to another castle, Hurst Castle, before leaving the Solent and then it was time to move on in our unsubtle pink van.  We stopped in Bournemouth to check out Bob’s childhood home and visit with his cousin, Stephen, the last remaining family member in England.   It is good to see Stephen doing well.  His most recent book, The Mathematical Connection between Religion and Science, is available on Amazon.  I can’t even begin to understand it but he certainly is a deep and profound thinker.

Bob overlooking the Bournemouth Beach where he spent so many hours as a child

After a quick trip to Bradbury Rings, an Iron Age hill fort which Bob use to visit as a child, we continued on and found a car park in Lyme Regis to bed down for the night.

Beach huts at Lyme Regis

The next day we drove through Dartmoor.  I loved the wildness of it and could well imagine Sherlock Holmes stalking the great Hound.

Dartmoor

Hound Tor

We drove on to Boscombe in Northern Cornwall to camp for the night overlooking the Irish Sea.  Boscombe is a charming rugged Cornwall village and we spent an hour or so in the morning exploring the harbour.

Entrance to Boscombe Harbour - Wouldn't want to come in here in bad weather!

Boscombe Harbour

The dreary English weather set in overnight and our planned tour Cornwall was thwarted by crowds and bad weather.  I was so looking forward to exploring the seaside villages and pirate coves of the Cornwall coast but we couldn’t get near them.  The peak season crowds were impossible.  So Cornwall was added to the ever growing list of ‘next time’ but definitely in off season!

We continued north and spent the night alongside a charming waterside park in Portishead, just outside Bristol.

Swan with her cygnets and adopted goose - Portishead

The next day we explored Bristol which seemed a dynamic city despite the dreary gray skies and drizzle.   We went to the docklands, of course, and visited some chandleries for supplies then had a look at Brunel’s SS Great Britian.  She was the longest passenger ship in the world when built in 1843.  The great ship was revolutionary for its time and had a varied history including bringing thousands of people to Australia during the gold rush.  The museum was extremely well done and bring the ship back from the Falkland’s to its present location was an amazing conservation effort.  I enjoyed the exhibit of this old ship much more than the HMS Victory exhibit.

SS Great Britian

Model of the ship with sails

Bow of SS Great Britian

The dinning room as it would have been

We stumbled upon the Aardman Studios and children engaged in a ‘Find Shaun’ treasure hunt throughout the city.  

Shaun the sheep

Next stop – Wales just across the Severn.

The hills of Wales across the Severn

Road Trip 2: Port Solent to Stonehenge

We spent the next few days around the Solent – a very beautiful area and a yachty’s heaven.  Just across the bay from Port Solent where we spent a very comfortable night in a quiet car park by the water, was another castle, so of course we had to have a look.  Portchester Castle is another castle that had its history dating from Roman times but this castle was in much better shape than Pevesey.  It was a Roman stronghold in Northern Europe from 285-410 AD, on the front line during the Hundred Years war, the embarkation point for Henry V’s Agincourt campaign and a prisoner of war camp during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.  We spent hours climbing the ramparts and towers and admiring the superb views.

Boot camp amongst the ruins

The well preserved keep

And the views of Portsmouth from the top

We then skirted around Southampton to do a quick run to Salisbury.  Here the cathedral was open to the public and provided a wonderful community space both inside and outside.  The cathedral houses the world’s oldest pendulum clock but not terribly accurate as it was about 20 minutes slow – though I suppose not too bad for over 600 years old.  The cathedral houses one of four original Magna Cartas.  We were also fortunate to hear the choir at practice – what fantastic acoustics!  I love the architecture of these cathedrals – the stained glass and arches – Such wonderful symmetry.

Salisbury Cathedral

Choir at practice

Wonderful symmetry

Internal courtyard

Next we went across the Salisbury Plains to Stonehenge.  The wide open spaces of the Plains were a relief after the claustrophobic hedgerows of Southern England.  It had been so frustrating to pass signs stating ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’ only to see hedgerows growing so thick they formed dark tunnels turning an already gray days into night.  English heritage was lucky I didn’t have a chainsaw with us as I was sorely tempted to cut down them all.

Stonehenge was great but I felt a bit conned when I found out it has been co-opted by new age Druids and never had anything to do with the real Iron Age Druids.

At Stonehenge

In the late afternoon sun

On the Road in our Campervan – Canterbury to HMS Victory

After a week in London it was time to hit the road to explore the rest of the UK.  We had rented a modest camper van for the next three weeks to circumnavigate the British Island.  The van was small with minimal facilities but living on boats one gets use to making due.  It was painted an embarrassing pink and there was no way we could go around England subtlety which just encouraged Bob to emphasise our Australianness – G’day Sport! 

Our unsubtle camper van

The front seats turn around, the back seat converts into a small table. There was a little frig and water bottle, a one burner butane stove and the back converted into a double sized bed with a very thin mattress - All the comforts of home - not!

Our first stop was Canterbury to check out the Cathedral.  Sadly we could not get near the Cathedral or the grounds without paying a hefty entrance fee so we contended ourselves with glimpses of the spires and walking around the quaint town and the River Stour.

A view of Canterbury Cathedral over the wall - as close as the public could get unless they paid 20 pounds each

The pretty River Stour

It seems much of England has been turned into a theme park.  The famous towns look like movie sets (or are we in Disneyland?) and all the great attractions require £15 or £20 to see, plus 4 pounds for parking. 

We drove on to Hastings (kept my eye out for Inspector Foyle and Sam) and checked out the beach then continued to Battle where we passed a pub with about 20 Morris Dancers prancing around waving streamers – what a hoot!  We found a layby on a country lane to spend the night and were ready for an early start to explore the town of Battle and its Norman heritage.  Once again the battle site of 1066 was too expensive to see but we did enjoy the Norman church of St Mary the Virgin built in 1080.

Stained glass window depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066

Tomb of Sir Anthony, companion of King Henry VII, who died in 1548

We next drove by Pevensey Castle and decided to have a look.  This too had a hefty entrance fee but we found out that by joining English Heritage we could get into hundreds of sites for free.  We figured we would have to visit just 3 or 4 sites and the membership fee would pay for itself.  So we paid the £63 for the joint senior membership and were on our way to making old castles the theme of our travels.

Pevensey Castle has a history spanning 16 centuries, starting as a Roman fort against Saxon raideromb of Sir Anthony, then the landing site of William the Conqueror in 1066.  It withstood the Spanish Armada and finally used during WWII with added pillboxes and machine gun posts added.  Great stuff!

Entrance over a moat to Pevensey Castle

Courtyard of Pevensey Castle with the remains of the Keep

Next stop was a quick look at Brighton and King George IV oriental folly.  I liked Brighton.  It has quite a vibrant feel to it and lots of young people from the university. 

Brighton Pier and the shingle beach

King George IV Oriental Folly

The next day we visited the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.  The museum is on a 40 acre site with around 50 historic exhibit buildings rescued from destruction and rebuilt on site.  The exhibits show over 600 years of English architecture from Medieval homes, working smithy and watermill, 18^th Century market hall, to Victorian cottages.  While there we saw a Spitfire fly overhead and the volunteer we were chatting with at the time told us he regularly flew these awesome machines at his flying club – only in England!

Market Hall and Tudor houses

Our last stop on our third day of touring around was the HMS Victory.  Bob was really looking forward to seeing the old girl again but sadly she is but a shadow of her former glory.  She is undergoing long term renovations and her masts are cut down in half, her magnificent bowsprit gone and the deck is mostly under construction and shrouded in tarps.  Many of the cabins inside were not open.  Still it was wonderful to see a ship of the line – not unlike the US Constitution, but bigger.  The spot where Nelson ‘fell’ during the Battle of Trafalgar was marked on the deck with visitors giving it due reverence.

HMS Victory - a mere shadow of her former self.

Lord Nelson's uniform

So we left the grand lady and made our way through the English rain to Port Solent and a spot to rest for the night.