Last year, we had planned to visit Tanzania in July, but health issues barged in and cancelled those plans.  This year, we finally felt comfortable to travel abroad again, and we returned to one of our favorite destinations: the United Kingdom.  The flight was easy, leaving from Denver around 5:00 pm, which helped reduce jetlag by allowing us to sleep soon after boarding.  When we arrived in London, we picked up our rental car and installed our Garmin GPS.  We reviewed our pre-printed instructions for making our way from the airport to the M25 (which was easier than anticipated).  

During our first day, we drove an hour from London Heathrow Airport to the city of Winchester, stopping at the National Trust's Hinton Ampner gardens for a lovely visit and cream tea.  This was our first of several autumn gardens we visited, with apples ripe on the trees, pumpkins decorating the paths, slowly fading flowers and trees just starting to shed their leaves. 

Lodging

The first few pics here are from New Forest National Park, which was created by William the Conqueror in 1079.  Overall, we found New Forest to be more crowded than we anticipated, with more visitor regulations.  The trees were also not as spectacular as we had hoped.  We returned to New Forest one more day, but mostly the woods in Dartmoor were far more powerful.  The other pics are from Maiden Castle, an iron age hill fort.  My pictures do not do this place justice.  It is immense and spectacular!  It is a natural hill that has been carved into a forest.  Massive ditches and earth walls have been carved all around the hill, in order to both preserve and intimidate.  It was built around 600 BC and went into decline around 100 BC.  By the time the Romans arrived, it was mostly just farmland.  But in it's heyday it was an impregnable fortress, complete with wood timber walls, gates and maze-like entrances.  It is over a half mile long, and once housed well over 200 people.  In my pictures, you can see the massive earth works along the perimeter, and the ruins of a Roman temple palace at its highest point.  Based on our one-day experience, it is also a very popular place for locals to walk their beloved dogs. The Brits love their pooches, and this makes us very happy.

Lodging

Killerton is 19th century country house that was once part of a massive estate, deriving back to Norman the Conquerer. It's last owner was a successful politician who became too liberal for the Labor Party. Accused of hypocrisy for advocating less private ownership while he owned a good chunk of Devon, he decided to donate it all (or most) to the National Trust. His children were not pleased. We had a great day visiting the house, the gardens and the woodlands. 

The drive to our Dartmoor lodging was uneventful.  When we arrived, we popped across the road to visit Spinster's Rock, which is a 5000 year old Dolmen (burial tomb).  Originally, this stone chamber would have been covered by earth and become a mound.  Today, all that remains are the stone walls.  It is quite a beautiful site.

Lodging