A visit to the dark side

I took another walk to Ankerwycke over the weekend, the National Trust land on the opposite bank of the river from Runnymede. I still can't either get over or articulate how different yet the same it is. Deeper, darker, danker. It is clammier. It smells different. It feels different underfoot. Unseen creatures are somehow louder, and there a few unfamiliar bird calls. The woods are denser and the meadows are smaller so they seem brighter. The mix of trees is different and there are ruined water channels everywhere. It seems ludicrous to be saying this in the 21st century, but Ankerwycke feels like a genuinely spiritual place in a way that Runnymede doesn't. Runnymede's magical, transformative powers come out to play at night but Ankerwycke's are there in broad daylight. As you can see from the pictures, its strangeness infects me.