My Ramblings

Will we ever find out the mystery of Stonehenge or is it something that we shall never truly know the full meaning of?

Well, scientists believe that they are getting closer to working out the answer to this very question!

Earlier on in the year archeologists began work at the English Heritage site and scientists have been examining the finds and have come up with a new theory as to why Stonehenge was built in the first place...

Evidence suggesting that a wooden pole like structure has been found that dates back to around 9000 years ago! The current structure on the site is believed to have been constructed halfway through then and now.

So, why has this site been worshipped for the last 9000 years then?

It's all quite simple really, it's all to do with periglacial stripes that occurred on the site and they just happened to point in the direction of the midsummer sunrise (the summer solstice).

"What's a periglacial stripe?" I hear you cry! Well, basically the ones that are at Stonehenge are stripes in the ground that were created during the ice age the land froze and then thawed several times.

These stripes happen to face in the right direction so that during the summer solstice you would be directly facing the sun which is why the site has been worshipped for so many years!

I've got an 05 plate Vauxhall Astra Diesel 1.7 CDTi SRi and the other day I wanted to nip out to the shops and when I tried to start the engine, it turned over without any problems but wouldnt start.

All lights worked and the stereo was working OK and like I say, it turned over OK so therefore the battery was OK.

I tried locking the car and then unlocking it again incase it was an immobilser problem as that's what I thought it might have been - this didnt work.

I did a quick search on the internet and found that a couple of other people have had this problem and solved it easily by pressing the clutch down a couple of times and then trying to start the car.

Not quite sure what pressing the clutch down a couple of times would do, but I thought I would give it a go and low an behold it worked!!! I pressed and depressed the clutch twice and then turned the ignition and it started up straight away and I have had no problems ever since!

I was on my way back from doing a bit of shopping this morning, I ejected the CD so I could change it over and the stereo stopped working.

A quick search on the internet and I came across this site:

www.astraownersclub.com

Very quickly I was able to establish that FE35 (under the bonnet) was the 20A fuse I needed to check - after removing the fuse I tested it and it passed a continuity test so there is nothing wrong with the fuse.

I put the key in the ignition and tried the stereo again and it worked! By simply removing the fuse and putting it back in again I had managed to reset it and get it working again!

We arrived at our destination at around 08:46 where we began our 16 mile walk by taking a photograph not of where we were starting the walk, but by taking a photograph of where we would finish the walk...

Not quite sure why we would take a picture of the finish when we hadn’t even started the walk yet.

After a few minutes walking we came to a bridge where we had a short break whilst we checked the map to make sure we were going in the right direction.

We then crossed the bridge and continued on up the path, as you can see from the next picture the footpath was clearly marked and very easy to navigate:

At this stage I was really enjoying the fantastic weather that we were lucky to have and the great views of the surrounding countryside as we meandered round the hillside.  A few moments later the footpath took a dramatic change...

This may look like a pile of rocks to you and the reason it looks like a pile of rocks, is because it is a pile of rocks – this (believe it or not) is now what the footpath has turned in to.

It was at this point that the 16 mile walk was starting to turn in to a 16 mile hike/climb.

The walk was no more and was now most definitely a hike across varied terrain and as you will see from the photos below there were some amazing views and strange rock formations to be found on our way.

There was one part of the hike that was actually very flat and if you believe in the conspiracy theory that the American Moon Landing was fake then this area is possibly the place where it was filmed:

When we reached a place on the map called Mill Hill, the person I was walking with temperament began to change... he kept on mentioning a road... a road that as we continued walking he became more and more obsessed with and it was at this point that my pleas to turn back became unheard as the only voice in his head was saying “we must get to the road, we must get to the road”.

The rough terrain gradually improved and turned in to a narrow footpath that meandered on through the peat bogs for what was quite literally miles and miles and miles.

After what seemed like an eternity we finally reached the road, but this was not enough for the road obsessed person I was with and we had to cross the road and continue further before finally being allowed to sit down, rest and have lunch.

Once the lunch break was over (all 15 minutes of it), we began our military style march all the way back along the long footpath back to Mill Hill.

After reaching Mill Hill it was at this point that things start to get a little patchy as not only had I ran out of water,  but there was a slight twinge in my legs – which if memory serves me correct, i may have mentioned the odd few times...

Unfortunately this was the last photograph that I took as I had to focus all my energy in to hiking across the final part of our epic journey.  Now I can understand the 'Logic' in taking a photograph of where we would finish, right at the start of the walk as he must have known that we would be going for absolute miles and wouldn’t have the energy to take a photo at the finish.

In conclusion the 16 mile walk had turned in to a 21.6 mile hike.  The only logical explanation is that the person I was walking with was working on  a  different measurement of distance than what the rest of us use.  Clearly he was using a scale which was longer than normal which would explain the 5.6 mile difference...

This weekend I'm off on a walk with a couple of people from work where we shall be walking part of the Pennine Way walk.

The full walk is several hundred miles of which we will be doing around 16, the next time we decide to go on another walk we can then walk the next stage until over a period of time we have walked the complete Pennine Way!

The weather is supposed to be quite good, not to warm but it should definately be dry... at least that is what the weather forcasters as saying at the moment.