On the road again (Thursday 29th August 2013)

Lugging the cases down the stairs was much easier, but still hot work. We had breakfast however the service was much better when Michele was there. Just shows how important good people are in the hospitality industry, worth much more than any product.
We walked down to the Avis Budget office just 600m from the hotel. There was a bit of a queue as only one chap was on. Nevertheless, we still got away from London on schedule at about 10:00am. Our car is a silver Citroen C3, a nice little car that's easy to drive and I enjoy driving it. Stephen, your diesel one was a good choice and is much more up market than ours. I'm used to the low down torque a diesel gives which this unleaded variant doesn't have.

We set the GPS for Reading for no reason other than it is west of London in the general direction of the Cotswolds. Traffic on the M4 was good until we got near Windsor, then it stopped to a crawl. We thought we'd turn of to Windsor to avoid the traffic and check out Lizzie's shack in the country. Well, bugger me, but the traffic hold up was due to everyone else wanting to see Lizzie's shack. Wr caught a glimpse of Windsor Castle as we did a u-turn to get back to the M4.

We had never intended to actually go to Reading it was just a target for GPS-girl. We skirted around the large town and found the A4 which more-or-less runs parallel to the M4. It just goes through all the towns along the way rather than speeding past them. The latter was always our intention. It was lunch time so we started looking for a pub. At Beech Hill we found The Elm Tree Free House just standing on a hill in the fields. It was sunny and the pub had a terrace so we stopped there.

Waitressing at the pub was a lovely young Australian girl from Sydney. She was so excited to hear an Australian voice, as were we. We were the first Australians who had stopped at the pub. Lauren, we've seen a few barmaids and waitresses over the last two months and if they all had your smiling face and happy outlook they'd be better for it. You're a credit to yourself and a great representative of our Nation. Good luck with whatever you do next. Oh, and don't forget to vote on Saturday!

We drove on through some classic English country lanes through Mortimer and Aldermaston back towards the A4. Some roads were heavily wooded, some were lined either side for miles with hedgerows and all around the fields were green. In the areas was a village called Strathfield Saye and another called Guildford and just behind the pub was the Loddon River. It seemed like we were back in Central Victoria! A part of the English canal system runs through this country fed partially by the Kennet River. We crossed the canal at the town of Aldermaston Wharf where we caught a glimpse of some colourful canal boats moored by the bank so we pulled over for a photo.

Just up the canal was a lock with two boats approaching so we went over to watch them pass through. Well, watching, was the plan until a couple of “senior” ladies alighted to look after the task of manually opening the locks. I couldn't standby and watch so I stepped up to join in the action. One of the ladies wound a gear which partially opened one of the two gates which were abutting one another in a V shape. That let the water start to fall to the next level. Then it took sheer grunt to literally drag the gate open. The boats passed into the lock, the gates behind were closed and then the process began again with the front gate. The whole process took about 30 minutes. Finally, one of the ladies operated the electronic controls to raise the nearby road bridge so the boats could continue their journey. It was a great experience to be able to help get the boats through. One I won't forget. It's all about being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of the “once in a lifetime opportunities presented.

Back into the A4 we drove through Thatcham, Newbury ,Hungerford and Marlbouough. Our intention was to drive to Malmesbury on the eastern edge of the Cotswolds, find the Tourist Information centre and find some accommodation, About 10kms past Marlborough we entered the “standing stones” district of Wiltshire. The whole area is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage area. Everywhere are example of stone circles and burial mounds from the pre-history time. Right on the A4 just near Beckhampton is the world's largest man-made mound called Silbury Hill. Obviously the UNESCO chaps haven't seen Calder Park yet!

We passed a pub with a thatched roof and thought we'd change plan and inquire about accommodation. They had none but sent us across the road to a B&B there. There was ine spare double room in Isobel Cottage so we snapped it up. It was about 4:30pm, well short of our target town, but an early finish to driving was appealing. The landlord pointed us in the direction of a nice 40 minute return walk. We walked along dirt paths past fields of horses and steers, down country lanes, past fields recently harvested for straw and hay feed during the winter, across a little creek and through numerous gates to reach the village of Avebury.

A beautiful little English village. Just a couple of streets, a pub, three shops, many large houses such as the Rector's house, The Bakery, Rosemead and so on. St, John's church and its ancient cemetery dominated the street-scape. A large ring of “standing stones” dominated the nearby fields. The Manor House and its gardens and yards, behind the church, created the perfect backdrop to the landscape.

We walked back along the route we had taken, were greeted by some friendly cows and horses looking for an easy feed and wound up back at the pub, The Horse and Waggons. There we had a lovely and relatively inexpensive meal and a couple of pints before heading back across the road to home.