For something like 20 years public access to Stonehenge, one of Britains most famous ancient monuments, has been severely restricted due to fears of erosion, vandalism, and the possibility that someone might accidentally discover its true purpose and open a portal to another dimension and allow Unspeakable Horrors (TM) to conquer Wiltshire. Some more enlightened souls believe this may have already happened. Anyway, public access is now limited to being able to wander around a footpath a respectful distance from the stones themselves and visits by appointment only for restricted numbers of people at dawn and dusk, which do in fact allow you full access (but no climbing). Permission to conduct rituals, play drums, or dance naked are by special arrangement only.
A friend had arranged for a group of us to go to the dawn session yesterday. Of course, this being June, dawn was somewhat early and we left home shortly after three in order to allow plenty of time for the trip.
The whole trip was, I think, well worthwhile although unfortunately the sky was fairly cloudy and a thick fog had set in and shrouded Salisbury Plain so that the horizon could not be seen. Hence no dawn could really be seen. Pity.
I would be remiss, however, if I failed to confess to my own little part in the procedings when I saw a glimmer of light emerging over the brow of a fog-blurred hill. I was looking at the light for some time before concluding that it was not, in fact, the sun: the actual horizon (initially hidden by the fog) was somewhat higher than the light, the light did not change in size or position, and a quick reality check revealed that the light was actually in the carpark and not anywhere near the "heel stone", which actually marks the point of sunrise as viewed from the centre of the stones at the summer solstice.
Ho hum.
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