Greetings from the World Heritage Rock Climbing Centre..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Avebury! Hehe, actually you aren't strictly supposed to climb on the rocks, but that's blatantly what this site originally was. You just have to look at all the chalk all over the floor - it was the world's first outdoor rock gym!

We fancied a bit of a mini holiday yesterday, so we set off for a day trip to Wiltshire! The weather was a bit rubbish, but we thought we'd risk it anyway - it turned out to be such a cool day out! It was drizzling a bit when we arrived at Avebury, but it wasn't long before it cleared up and we had a bit of sunshine! We walked all around the whole stone circle, it's such an amazing place. It's apparently one of the largest and finest Neolithic monuments in Europe, around 5000 years old, older even than Stonehenge. It's a very interesting area, just a few miles away you've got Silbury Hill, and West Kennet Long Barrow, and within 20 miles is Stonehenge! There is lots for archaeologists to have fun with there, we saw loads of them with their Indiana Jones hats! =)

I read an interesting theory that the stone circle was used for ancestor worship, with the tall thin rocks representing men, and the short fat ones representing women. Isn't that charming?

Here's a bit of the circle..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Lots of nice hand grips..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

DO NOT CLIMB ON THE ROCKS!

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

There were so many thatched cottages in Wiltshire, beautiful..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

There's a strange circle on this one, I wonder if it was carved in, or just a freakish natural feature of the rock..

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

A settee?

Avebury

Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Check out that weather front - I think we were pretty lucky!

Avebury
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We got back to the shop just as it was starting to drizzle again, what a good excuse! =) And I was glad there was, because I made a super-lucky find..

Polish chess board
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

The Polish chess board I wanted!! Some kind soul had brought it all the way over from the Tatra mountains for me to pick up! The giant one for £30, not bad at all considering the price of the ones on the Internet!

When we were heading back to the car, we were wondering how far away Silbury Hill was.. and then we looked up to see..

Silbury Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Oh! Not very far then! We drove over to take a look, and then headed off to Stonehenge..

via Woodhenge!

Woodhenge
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

(I think the wooden stakes were originally a little more impressive, but if you will make a henge out of wood, what do you expect)

Stonehenge
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog