24 September 2014

This will be the penultimate tale before we end these travels and head home.  If time permits there may be a final rant at the airport, the airport is such a rich environment for spleen venting.

Scotland

• The Scottish have voted and independence is off the agenda but now everyone is arguing about devolution of law making to not only the Scots but also the English.  This referendum hasn’t resolved anything just made the question more complicated.  The way they are heading they will end up with four States and one federal government – don’t do it.

History

• We are now in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire near the Welsh border.  We visited an iron ore mine that dates back before the Romans and into the iron age.  Here 9 year olds worked 10 hour days hauling 60kg loads of ore.  They started the working day in the dark, worked underground all day and finished after the sun had set.  They worked by the light of a candle held between their teeth.  Ah, the good old days.
• History has a very different context here in the UK.  You can be on one site that includes iron age, Roman, Norman, Saxon and medieval remains; it’s quite overwhelming.  In Durham Minster there is tomb that may hold the Venerable Bede’s remains.  Now this guy dies in 735AD;  400 years later his remains are moved to Durham where they have been these past 900 years.  Australia as a westernised country has existed but for about 225 years.  Compare our timeframe with that of the history of the Venerable Bede.
• The Roman ruins at Vindolanda are really interesting and you can see the roads and various buildings.  You can walk around these ruins and think well that’s it.  A quick chat with the archaeologists and you discover this site goes for another mile to the north that is still cow paddocks, that it was occupied for 400 years (see comment re Australia) and that in excess of 6000 people lived here.  He went on to say there is 250 years of archaeology work to be done.  At this point my brain is full.

Roads and Navigation

• We continue to enjoy these narrows roads.  The Forest of Dean is punctuated by substantial villages in almost every valley. You can be driving through sheep and cattle farms and then around the corner come across a village of several hundred houses and as you approach the village be prepared for a double-decker bus coming toward you on that same narrow road.  Nothing like the Australian bush.
• When I asked for directions to the local village I got the classic, ‘turn left where mill race used to be’ (this needs to be said with a broad southern English accent).  I followed the directions through a cow paddock and followed the brook.  I proceeded down a footpath that seemed to be within someone’s backyard to emerge on the main road.  On my return I discovered the house beside the footpath was the Mill House so maybe I did follow where the mill race used to be.  These directions remind me of Wamboin directions to turn right where the shop used to be or in Queanbeyan where the Post Office used to be.
• I would add the paddock I had to walk through was full of some very bad cows.  Everyone of them had an electronic tracking bracelet on their leg so I am assuming they have been bad and had to remain in that paddock.  One large group congregated right where I had to walk; it was a direct challenge but I pressed on and got a lot of very serious cow stares.
• I have gone on about the narrow roads but I thought I would explain how close the houses are to the road.  In some villages the front door opens onto the road.  For some houses you could fit a lawn chair at the front of your house but it couldn’t be a recliner, your feet would be scraping the sides of passing traffic.  Think I am joking?
• In the UK events and places sometimes get quite grand names.  In Scotland a local map recorded an area that was tidal, it was called The Great Muck.  There is regular reference to a major storm back in 2005, it is referred to as The Great Storm and motorway signs for south or north describe The North or The South.  Maps even record the name of a wood which for us would be a couple of acres of trees, but no in the UK its Smith Woods.  The farms are also listed by name such as Browns Farm.  If you had a sign just outside Canberra that said The West you right assume the road took you to Perth.  Of course in the US a sign that said The South would have political and historic implications that we aren’t forgetting!

People

• I know stereotypes are never accurate and can be dangerous but here goes; the UK local on a summer day is:
  • Eating an ice cream
  • Has a least one dog on the leash
  • Is probably smoking (difficult I know with the dog and ice cream)
  • If in a couple may well be holding hands (even more difficult with the dog, ice cream and cigarette)
  • Is not wearing a hat.  Hardly anyone here wears a hat, not even the school kiddies.  Might have something to do with the weather.
• In any earlier tale I mentioned the cattle auctions in Bakewell.  What I didn’t mention was that just about all the farmers looked and sounded like characters from Thomas Hardy’s book Far From the Madding Crowd – see the 1960s version.  The auction also caused me to think about the Roma Queensland cattle auctions where 7000 cattle were auctioned in a day versus 700 in Bakewell.  In Roma it was an outside affair, dusty and hot, in Bakewell it was in a very comfortable inside arena where 2 or 3 cows are auctioned at a time and driven away in trucks appropriate for that number of cows.  In Roma it was B Doubles and road trains.  Farming here is very different, more intense and in country that has been farmed for thousands of years.

Sunshine in general

• The camp grounds here  generally are just an open field, not a tree in sight.  No shade anywhere.  Wouldn’t work in Australia.  And in Scotland a campsite was called a pitch.  Maybe that’s where we get cricket pitch.
• No one chases the shady carpark so your car isn’t too hot when you come back to it.  Don’t they know how important it is to get the best shady carpark; better than everyone else.

Food and drink

• If you ask for a beer in an English pub you will be asked; an ale or a lager?  What no one asks that in Australia, so be prepared.  Ales tend to be heavier and less aerated.  The ales and lagers here are amazing and there seems to different ones on offer in every pub.  Some many pubs and so little time!
• Pub food is often fish and chips, steak and ale pies, roast beef, pork or lamb and lots of other stuff.  You can guess my focus.
• For breakfast you can get courageous and try black pudding (one try was enough for me), maybe kippers (smoked herrings) which were pretty good, or in Scotland smoked haddock and egg or haggis.  I never tried the haggis.  Of course in Scotland porridge is also offered.
• Eating time is also such a fun time to observe the table and eating habits of other cultures.  No judgement just observation, although I do have my mother’s voice in my head telling how to eat properly when I see some more of the more unusual approaches.  Doesn’t everyone eat like I was taught; don’t they know what’s right and what’s wrong.   You don’t lick your knife and you don’t put the cereal bowl to your mouth to drain the last bit of milk, I mean geez!

That’s it for the moment.  Today will be one last jaunt and then the packing thing – remember the reference to black holes.