May Bank Holiday - West bound - on the A303!!

 Come rain or shine, nothing keeps the tourists from driving miles from their cosy little abodes....to the West Country and Stonehenge!   They may have made good progress along the way, hoping to reach their destination before night fall.....but....
English Heritage www.english-heritage.org.uk have put paid to that!!!    The notorious bottleneck on the A303 around Stonehenge is where it all comes to a GRINDING HALT!!

So!....in an effort to get more signatures on our petition at: www.sh2.co.uk to improve the A303 west from Stonehenge and on past Winterbourne Stoke, a wee drop of rain - stair rods actually, doesn't keep wife of Watch Bustard from making good use of the standing traffic to hand out flyers.....by the time you reached West Amesbury where the A303 filters into single carriageway for Stonehenge Bottom, you'd all been in the queue for over 45 minutes from Beacon Hill......We understand that the queue on both Friday and Saturday afternoon around 3pm went back as far as Parkhouse junction.  Whatever the mileage between the two points, we work out the average speed to have been 6 mph....i.e. a brisk walk!!   There was even time for one nice lady to get out of her car past "strawberry layby", walk back and buy a punnet, then walk back to her car, which had moved barely 100 yards, and how kind of them to offer us a couple too....thanks!
The reason for all this .....to accommodate the new visitor's centre.   English Heritage, the custodians of  The World Heritage Site (WHS) that is......OUR Stonehenge used a STOPPING UP ORDER or SUO in June 2013 to close the A344 past Stonehenge.   This means that all traffic which would have headed to villages and towns to the north of the county, or to the WHS, now has to remain on the A303 to Longbarrow Roundabout - and that means us locals too!!!    Where's the logic and forethought I ask you?.....It also means you cannot just pitch up at the WHS and take a quick photo through the fence and get on your way.......you must now remain in the queue and enter via Airmans Corner, pay the money - £14.90 and.....what must seem very strange to some, because in passing along the A303, you already saw Stonehenge .....you now have to use the Noddy Train to reach the Stone Circle.    And there in lies another problem.....photographing The Stones from the A303 where traffic slows down and speeds up...... causes yet more hold ups!!!......See the results from these photos taken on Friday around midday and no points for spotting the wee yellow jacket!! They didn't think it out did they?