Half way between Avebury and Stonehenge I have the luxury of waking up in a cosy bed,shortly followed by a delicious cooked breakfast at the Antelope Inn in Upavon. I have a feeling I'm going to need the boost with a good twelve miles to dance today, not to mention solstice celebrations tonight and tomorrow morning.
I also have a pack on my back today and it's not exactly light. The main road to Amesbury is nice and straight, but with no grass verge and heavy traffic it would be a suicide mission for me, luckily i can follow the old road through the villages.
It turns out to be a bit hilly but i don't mind as the scenery is beautiful and the sun is beating down.
I dance over tank crossings, find some huge feathers for my hat and a helpful gentleman makes me a cup of tea and directs me to a shortcut which leads me along the river. The man appeared just as i had been stood on a village green scratching my head in confusion. It's a nice change from the road, dancing along the river bank, ducking under branches, but i worry for my ankle as I skip through the dirt.
My backpack has been no trouble and i barely stop until i've danced about nine miles to Durrington.
Well I say barely stopped, I have to pee every half a mile due to my water intake. My regime is to drink about eight litres a day so I'm constantly in and out of the bushes. I swear by it though, somehow I hardly sweat, and I don't even smell, and anybody who knows me will find that very hard to believe.
Not wanting to arrive at Stonehenge to early, and cautious of using up to much energy, I decide to find a pub in Durrington in the hope of resting a few hours to save strength for the last few miles.
The pub turns out to be the Stonehenge arms.
While i'm walking from the pub to the local shop to get a bite to eat, the heavens open dramatically and I spend the rest of the afternoon underneath the hand dryer in the pub toilets. The pubs quiet considering it's the solstice. I sit and chat with Michael, a local chap who's right on my wavelength and draws me a map showing a shortcut to stonehenge.
As the evening draws near I go through my ritual of getting ready, drinking ginseng tea and arranging my kit. Some young lads are in town for their first trip to Stonehenge and are exited at the idea of following me, so we head off.
It's chaos at the stones as everybody wants their photo taken with me. It gets worse when I bump into Pete the druid who is in his robes, we can hardly talk amid the barrage of cameras so we head back to the van where I am served a lovely handpicked herbal tea. On the way to the van i was given a crystal by a guy in a dog collar and dark glasses, it was pitch black, i still carry the crystal.
There is a rule in the solstice carpark of no tents. I can't tolerate this, i've skipped at least ten miles with a heavy backpack i need to get my head down for a couple of hours before sunrise, not least as I plan to dance off again tomorrow. I find a spot in a row of cars next to a motorbike. The owner of the bike has music blaring out and for some reason, despite being English, he is only listening to Australian music, from AC/DC one minute to Kylie the next. He informs me that the Australians are the only people who make good music.
Despite the curiousness of the biker, and the loudness of his music, i pitch the tent anyway thinking it's a fairly tucked away spot for a sly kip and i head off to pee.
Walking back to the tent I make friends with Tom and Nick from London and a fellow named Luke who is intrigued by my adventure and has similar ambitions for himself. We all jump in the back of Toms van with a couple of others and have a good old natter until finally I protest that I really must get some sleep before sunrise.
I find my tent has gone when I return! I fume.
Eventually i recover the tent from security. I only want some sleep before sunrise, it's hardly fair. I return to Toms van in search of sympathy.
The guys head off to the stones kindly letting me stay in the van to sleep in the company of Nicks dog. But just as I get comfy, Nick has decided to return and wants to talk. I have to say it's one of the most interesting conversations I've had for a long time, but it's painful as i am so tired. Eventually i give up altogether on sleeping and head to the stones with Nick.
Just as we get to the stones i am accosted by a member of the Warminster Morris men who invite me to dance "Jocky to the fair" with the rest of the men. It's nice to bump into dancers but i decline their invite to breakfast and stay for the sunrise. so tired I am.
I bump into Matt Dunham, a friend from teenage years who i've bumped into here and there. He's a photographer now and took photos of me that ended up being published on the internet. A couple of the pics are included with this post.
A man in a pink t-shirt tells me I must of been a horse in a past life all things considered.
I'm dazzled by beautiful druid girls.
But it's so hard to stay awake now the sun is up.
A man hands me a postcard that just about breaks my tired head.
This is what was hand written on the postcard:
Dear 2011 Hengites
Five Letter Pattern
When one rearranges a five (+) letter word 42531; the result, if one allows letters to represent symbols, telegraphic speech and abbreviations etc, often has a reference to the original word.
For example, C; the sea, to see, with V, CV. Hen(N) is a Scottish term of endearment.
Yours Mark Randall 7=4765123 F 2341765 ? 4123765(+2356) m 11=389(+,4567)
i.e ladders, LADRS
After reading that i felt a little dizzy, walked back to the carpark and at least managed to lay down for an hour before the security started hassling me to leave.
I think I know what Mark Randall was trying to tell me, but i'm interested to hear what anybody else might have to say on the matter.
