Post-hike mammoth watching

There was a fortunate coincidence going on with my hike with Jitske in Shropshire. I had to get there, and get back too, and that might not be easy. On the way out I had met her only some 15 minutes from a railway station, but it had taken me almost five hours door to door. On the way back I would have no railway station so conveniently close by. So I would somehow have to get to one further away. And public transport in Britain isn’t very impressive. 

As it so happened, I had been approached on a dating site by a man from Shropshire in early July. I told him I had seen his profile and figured I would ignore it. Shropshire is far away, and he had kids. Forget it! But we got chatting, and that went well, so in spite of the impediments we met up twice. And now I would be in his neck of the woods anyway. So I suggested we meet up when I'm there anyway. He was up for that! And he offered to pick me up from wherever I would be and deliver me to a railway station. And I accepted that.

When I was having lunch with Jitske we decided on a time and place to propose for the pick-up. The path was going to cross a road anyway! And there was a parking lot there. And there were picnic tables I could use for waiting if needs be. So that was agreed. And my date asked me if I was interested in watching some mammoth bones. I didn't really expect that question, but I said yes, why not, mammoth bones are cool!

When my date showed up he explained that in the area, mammoth bones had been found, and that the town we had just come through, Craven Arms, had a museum that seemed to have been put there specifically to host replicas of them. And if you have those, you might as well expand a bit, and put the entire history of the area in the exhibition. So the museum was grandly called the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre. And that's where we were headed.

It isn't a big place, but it was quite cool! I love geology and I love history, and they had both. It was quite quiet; we practically had the place to ourselves.

From the Iron Age section

When we had seen it all we decided to financially support the place, and have food there too. I had had lunch, but I knew I wouldn't be home until 8 pm or so, so another meal would have to be slotted in! And this would work out quite nicely. They also served ice cream, but my date suggested we go somewhere else for that; there is a gorge near Church Stretton (Carding Mill Valley), and that's where he used to go for ice cream. So we went there.

I was keeping a close eye on the time; I had a train to catch. Because of that, we didn't get very far into the gorge. We had to make sure we were back at the railway station on time. And we made it happen.

We both enjoyed this. We already have the next meeting in the diary!