TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

I had a great British brekky of eggs, bacon and toast(although having had experience, I did request the toast be buttered while still hot 😉 ) Because I had no power to use Skype on the pute, I used their phone to contact Mark at Garmin. He did remember me and said he would see what he could do, but get it down here ASAP. But, first I needed some power adaptors. I had decided to stay for another night and would need these adaptors anyway, so after getting some directions I found the camping and outdoor store and bought two, then went to Garmin and handed over the unit. I was told I would get a call that day, so here is hoping it is a nice call 🙂

This is now how my laptop is connected to the wall

From left to right, black Ozzie power plug for laptop, plugs into the next slightly cream colour Ozzie to US adaptor, then next is the small black US to Europe adaptor and finally the white Europe to UK and that goes into the wall, a bit convoluted, but that is what I had.

Then I got started on the blog updates which would take some time, but in case I needed a break, I had seen these signs to a town called Salisbury, and when I asked the question I was told yes, Stonehenge is just up the road 🙂 Well, it is 50km away and that seems a bit of a journey to the locals, but to me it is right next door. I figured I would go and visit after lunch, it should be relatively easy to find a big pile of rocks stuck in the ground without a GPS, surely 😉

In the end it was not necessary as Mark called me back around 1pm and told me they had replaced my unit and had transferred all my user data and maps to the new unit and upgraded the software and also gave me a second Lithium Ion battery 🙂 So, as soon as I finished a post, I headed off in the rain and grabbed the new GPS and the first thing I did was put some lekky tape over the SD card compartment, to stop it vibrating loose and also a wrap around the battery base so it is a firm fit inside the unit. Thanks a million Mark for the quick turnaround, now all I can hope for is hassle free riding 🙂

As you can see, I did not just get the unit, but the whole box of goodies including power and connecting leads. I will probably dump them as I have no need to carry spares(he says knowingly) Then it was off to Stonehenge and it seemed like a good day to go there as it was the Summer Solstice so maybe I would see something special 🙂 As I went through Salisbury, I realised it maybe would not have been as easy as I thought to find the place without a GPS, or stopping and asking every 5 minutes, as the first sign I actually saw mentioning Stonehenge, was right in the middle of town, but after that it was quite easy. The rain was on again off again and it was blowing a gale, did I say SUMMER solstice, it felt more like winter today!!

Well bummer, when I arrived at the turn off the damm place was closed, wouldn’t that root ya boot, fully cordoned off with a large police presence. I found out later it was BECAUSE of the solstice and the place was full of druids or something doing their special dawn thing, oh well there is only one thing for it, it must be beer time! I did manage to get a couple of photos and a short video, if you squint you can see the henge 😉

So, I ended up back at the same pub as last night, it was close by and I got a dinner discount for staying where I am. I had a few pints, of Fosters this time, no need for photos as it is an old beer I have posted before 🙂 But, they had this great story attached to the bar, hopefully you can read it, I thought it was funny, same as the framed photo in the dunnies, check out the name of the company selling crappers!!! 🙂

I had a bit of a night but tomorrow I planned to return to the henge to see if it is open, I had to be in Bury before 6pm, so a short detour would not be an issue 🙂 I had also downloaded and installed quite a few geocaches in the area, in case any happened to be on my way 🙂

Cheers from Southampton
TravellingStrom