On our way out

7.48am at Gatwick best Western hotel. Last day in England before we fly out tonight (fingers crossed!). We have been enjoying the luxury of having 6 square metres of floorspace, a BATH!!!, hot water not dependent on turning the gas on and taking the vent cover off, sleeping in a bed that doesn't make you feel seasick because it is windy outside or Eric is shifting about in his sleep.
Very nice ... we like hotels.
Kinda sad to get outta The Beast at the same time. It has served us well and taken us to some whacked out places. The last few days we have been exploring the highways and byways and industrial estates around Stonehenge. The stones themselves were a bit of non-event for me. When we first spotted them from the very busy main road that goes along each side of them, my first thought was "Is that it?" My previous images of them had always involved large open spaces and they seemed a lot larger than they actually were. All the same, big ups to the folk who brought them there 4000 years ago. Apparently some came from a fairly local quarry about 40 miles away and the smaller bluestones that go on top came all the way from Preselli in South Wales. I did not get any spiritual feeling from the place at all - mostly in fact I got a very cold feeling as the wind was strong and very biting. They had some nice sheep grazing in lines. Some were wearing raddles, so it must be mating season. One ram was sniffing a ewes urine which reminded us of Skippy at home.

That was the day when everything went a bit pear shaped. We left Folly Farm and drove west through heavy rain. Found a lovely village called Stocksbridge. Lots of nice art shops, a fantastic butcher's shop that did black pudding and pasties. Also huge trout in a very clear stream that ran along the street. Very tempting to dangle a worm in and catch our tea, but judging by the flyfishing shops it would be the sort of unsporting behaviour that would get us arrested.
On to the Hawk Conservancy Trust for a wet weather look around ... closed. Then onto Amesbury for a swim, couldn't find the Leisure centre as the signposts stopped. Tourist Info told us that there was a pool in Durrington 3 miles away and that it was open. Had an interesting drive round most of Durrington looking for said pool, again the signs took us so far and then stopped. Eventually found it down some back streets attached to Avon Community College. Yes it was open - for 10 minutes then closed to the public so that the kids could use it. The only thing that cheered me up was that all the kids and teachers here are back at school and we are still on holiday!

We ended up having lunch at Pizza Hut because we couldn't be bothered trying to find a pub open. The campsite for the next few weeks was Salisbury Touring Park in a little village called Orcheston. It was adequate; toilet block a bit dark and dirty, didn't fancy the showers, the chem toilet place didn't have a functioning hose and the site itself was a bit squashed for a vehicle of our size. However it did have WiFi, so we could at least go online for a fiver.
In the night, Chantelle and Patrick came down with a bug, good old V&D! I will spare you the gruesome details apart from saying that pineapple puke and liquid squit smells really bad anywhere and when it is in your mobile home you cant get away from it. I saw my job as keeping things normal for Eric and Stuart while letting the 2 sickies sleep it off. We had a hearty breakfast of black-pudding and bacon, went for a successful swim at Salisbury Five Rivers Leisure Centre and went to see "Enchanted" at the Odeon.
Yesterday we packed up, cleaned up and met Grand-dad Cambridge at Fleet Services to drop off all the bedding and stuff we had borrowed for the trip - thanks folks, you kept us all warm for a month! Big thanks to N&K also for the fan heater which kept us all toasty through the coldest weather.
Well thats it for now, we are basically killing time before our flight and seeing what entertainment we can find for a few hours here between being turned out of our room and going to the airport. Our windows give us a view of the end of the runway so we can see all the planes as they head off into the clouds - statrting to get that pre-flight stomach feeling.
Later g's as they say in Kaitaia