NOVEMBER 14TH .Atlantic, Pigs, Stonehenge & Wilton

Today we hit the road at around 7am and headed out to Stonehenge.
What a sight as we drove over the hill 3 miles from our hotel and suddenly these huge rocks are in front of us, a bit like seeing Ayres Rock for the first time. Naturally we were to early and you could'nt enter the grounds until 10am but we stood along the fence and watched the sun rise over the rocks and took photos, it was very pretty and a bit eerie, the weather didnt help that feeling.
Lucky for me Riley is tall and was able to hold the camera above the fence to get photos.
We would'nt have gone in anyway because they charge around 26 pounds for the 3 of us which is like $50 just to walk around them, you cant get within 20ft so I wasnt going to pay that when we took just as nice photos from the fence. It was blowing a gale during all this by the way, very cold wind.
We then drove to Wilton and stopped to take photos of the church and the memorial with Wilfred Hilliers name on it.
We stood there and I told the kids about Wilfred...thanks to Judy for the info. They really enjoyed being there and felt connected to the place.
After Wilton we drove to Fovant and spotted these carvings ? In the hillside off to the left of the road, they are called the Fovant Badges and one of them is the Australian emblem that our soldiers wear, the kids picked that out straight away and said “ isnt that ours? Australias emblem “ I walked over to the notice board and read that it was...clever kids.
We then headed to Shaftesbury and turned down towards Spetisbury and on to Winterbourne again passing through some pretty villages with lots of thatch roofed houses which I love.
It rained nearly the whole way. We turned at Wareham and drove down to Lulworth and Lulworth cove. On the road to the cove we drove through army land which had signs up saying that gunfire could occur ! Riley was “ stoked “ Mia and I nervous.
The road ended at this lovely village which had a walking path along the coast, over hills and very exposed to the elements. We only walked a short way because it was literally blowing 42 klm an hour winds and knocked Mia off her feet, the kids loved it.We were covered in sea spray and salt and it was freezing but they just wanted more ! I had to keep wiping the camera lens because of the salt in the air. We stayed up on the path which was above a blow hole for maybe half an hour and struggled the entire time to stay on our feet, we werent the only fools, there were a few other people. Finally I got the kids to come down and we had a hot chocolate in the local cafe to warm up.
Our hair was standing upright from the salt spray and I think I scared the young girl behind the counter because she took one look at me and took a step back...i was pretty wild looking with watery eyes, frozen face and hair standing on end.
Next stop was Weymouth were we got out of the car and walked along the beach, if you can call it walking. Again it was blowing a gale and the sea was wild...the kids loved it and ended up accidently on purpose ? Getting wet from the waves. I had to join them so now we can say we have dipped our legs into the Atlantic Ocean and froze ! The beach was rocks, no sand just large pebbles, pretty but strange when you are used to white sand. We drove back to Amesbury via Dorchester and arrived just on dark.
Down the road from us is Stonehenge and across the road from that is the biggest piggery we've ever seen, no where to stop the car but Riley took some photos from the window. It was amazing, all these pigs, huge white ones in this open paddock with these little huts dotted everywhere, no trees just mud and pigs. Rileys map reading skills have improved a lot. Last night I circled the the towns I wanted to drive through, no reason as to why those towns, I was just looking for a way to get to the coast without having to drive on the M4. He guided me to the coast by reading the map and picking what he thought looked like interesting roads and alerting me to roundabouts etc, I only looked at the maps twice and left it to him, I was testing him and he passed with flying colours, I'm very proud and I now feel more confident about driving around knowing that I dont have to keep looking at the maps...he is now navigator.
When we arrived back at the hotel both kids said that they were proud of me ! They were impressed by how quickly I have taken to the roads and the strange car, Mia said that her dad wouldnt have coped....hahaha, they said I was a better driver than their dad !! did you hear that Bruce ? More tomorrow.