Part 3: Real World Studios
We got on the bus to Box village, and on the way, we got a good look at the hills that surrounded the area, and wondered if one of them was Solsbury Hill. I hope not. Man, these hills look huge, I thought. The sun came out, and it was exceptionally bright and sunny for the rest of the day.
We entered the small village of Box and got off at the bus stop. Angel had been to Real World many years ago, and could vaguely remember where it was. I had no idea...from the pictures I've seen of Real World, I was under the impression it was rather isolated, and we'd have to walk away from the village in order to get to it. Wrong...just a few meters from the main road, we saw the railway bridge that you see in pictures like this. Then, just around the corner, we could see the studios. On the one hand, the buildings looked familiar, as I've seen many pictures and took the virtual tour several times as displayed on Xplora 1. On the other hand, it all seemed so different. It seemed so much smaller and enclosed than what I had seen in photographs. (5)
We walked up to the carpark where we were greeted by...a cat! A big orange fluffy one. He ambled over to us, flopped down on the cement, and let Angel and I rub his belly, which he seemed to enjoy. Then he wandered off, not to be seen again by us.
Mac in front of Real World Studios. Please control your excitement.
We walked over to the gate which I had easily recognized from Xplora 1, and looked inside the complex. We really couldn't see much...just buildings and few trees. We knew someone had to be there, as we saw three cars in the parking lot. One was a big boxy vehicle, one was a small wildly painted ugly car, and the other was a small blue car with a stuffed cow in the rear window.
I knew that Gabriel wasn't there, so there was no use getting excited. Prior to my leaving to the UK, I learned that Gabriel's Significant Other was due to give birth to a son that very weekend. I admit, I was rather pissed off to learn this...Gabriel just had to have a baby the same freakin' weekend I'm in Box. Was this a deliberate ploy to avoid moi, perhaps? But, I had to reason with myself that if he wasn't having a baby that weekend, than odds are he would be in Atlanta working with the bonobos instead, or at some global conference or an award ceremony or anything besides working at the studios. *Sigh.*
We could've easily jumped the gate and gone inside the actual property to look around, but besides the dangers of getting caught, we both knew it wasn't nice and it just wasn't our style. After staring longingly into the studios, we decided to get better view by going along the footpaths that surround the studios. We started across a bridge that crossed over a babbling brook, and that's where I was able to take a great picture of the main part of the studios.
Angel on Real World bridge, with her groovy Doc Martens and shiny red shades!
The Mothership!
Then we followed the path between some woods and a large pasture. The path went into some wood where it came to a dead end at a tiny bridge as seen below. Under the small bridge is where the river, brook, creek, whatever you call it, pours into a smaller waterway which I like to call a crick.
Where's a jet ski now that I need one?
We stared at the flowing water and relaxed for a bit before walking back to the carpark. We walked past the WOMAD building, which I must say, compared to all the other Real World buildngs, is just plain ugly and depressing. I'm surprised everyone in Womad didn't decide to jump ship and stay in Seattle just to get away from that dreary bunker.
The WOMAD bunker. Would you want to work in this building?
We took a few more pictures, and went back up Mill Lane and back towards the railway siding. The brook flows right around Real World Studios, and there, we saw a family of ducks swimming along. The folks at Real World must feed them because as soon as the ducks saw us, they jumped out of the brook, and waddled their way up to where we were. Upon seeing that we had nothing for them, they waddled back. After we took a picture of what we thought were either the Real World offices or the studio's resident facility, I noticed a path by the railway siding that appeared to go right behind the studios. Excited at this find, we decided to investigate.
Over the Garden Wall, behind the Studios: Next time I spy on Real World, I'm bringing a ladder.
Along a very muddy path, we could see over a garden wall and look right into Real World's back yard. Not too much to see...just the other side of the buildings we just saw from the front. Angel thought she saw the Real World dining room from looking in the windows. We both saw a shed that had windows and we could see a drum kit. The windows on all the buildings looked like they were in desperate need of cleaning. We walked along and finally saw a great canopy with piles of lumber. "Hey, I wonder what these guys are building?" Angel said. Maybe a new studio. Maybe Gabriel's theme park! Then we got to the end of the trail and realized that the canopy and lumber was a part of a lumberyard, Real World's next door neighbor. Darn.
Over the Garden Wall: Gabriel's Back Yard
We moseyed on back to the tunnel and decided to see one more thing. We saw a road that went up a hill in front of the Womad bunker. We climbed the hill and could get a nice few of the studios and the countryside. While we were up there, Angel got a call on her cell phone. She answered...it was Tony Farthing! We agreed to meet Tony for drinks and dinner that evening, and he called to inform us that he had safely made the two-hour journey from Aldershot, and he had plans to amuse himself until we were ready to meet him back at the Abbot House. "Hey, guess where we're at?" I said. "We're at Real World Studios. Yeah!"
"Excellent! Find any open doors?"
"Um, no."
"Jump over any gates?"
"No," I said, and explained the whole "not our style" thing to him. But I told him that we were having a rather good time exploring, and our expedition to Solsbury Hill was the next thing on our agenda. We wrapped the phone conversation up and I handed the phone back to Angel. She was about to put it away when she looked at the screen and laughed. "What?" I said.
"Tony left us a text message," Angel said. She showed me the screen. It read:
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill I could see the city light...
(5) It's true what they say. The camera adds ten acres. (back)