From Wiltshire into Dorset

He said:
After our stay in the popular and upscale Stourhead area at the Spread Eagle Inn, I was ready to get back to rural and sparsely populated country. This was that day, we started in the very small village of Hindon, ending in another small village of Ludwell. In between, along the 10 miles of trail we covered, was quite a variety of terrain and flora. We walked up over wooded hills, grassy hills, past lakes, streams, and ponds, and down into mostly wooded valleys. We saw the ancient Wardour Castle (see the photo above) and its newer version. The trail absolutely disappeared today several times, we were up to our knees breaking through grasses where the trail should be (based on the map), the tops of our shoes got buffed up.
With our 10 miles on the path today, our total distance is 67 miles after 7 days of walking.... coming up on half the total distance. Tonight we are staying in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Every day is busy with walking, navigating, sleeping, laundry, stretching, eating, shopping, downloading photos, blogging, etc... in fact, we have very little leisure time.

The next few days will be warmer, the daily mileage will be longer, and we may not get a network connection, so we will update things as we can.


She said:
I love Premier Cars, our drivers through this stretch of Wiltshire/Dorset. Karen picks us up from the end of the path each day, drives us to our inn and picks us up the next morning and brings us back to the path's start so we don't miss a mile. She also moves our luggage forward for us to the next night's inn/B+B. Walking on the Wessex Ridgeway means that we are out in the very rural countryside, and accommodations are not usually available right on the path, hence Premier Cars (and other services like them.)
"Rural" is the operative word - once again, we saw only ten people for the whole of the day's walk. Brilliant.
We walked through a pig farm today. If this is the counterpart to industry farming in the States, the US has a long way to go. These pigs looked downright happy! Lots of room to run around; lots of places to wallow. Happy. little houses to live in.
We came upon carpets of wild garlic on the forest floors - such a fragrant, fresh smell. We had seen this on the Cotswold Way and were happy to have it with us again this walk.
Kudos to R's map reading skills (and general directional abilities.) Several times today the path...just...ended. We walked cross country and came out where we belonged, no thanks to the guidebook and certainly no thanks to the (very) sparse Wessex Ridegeway signposts. Big thanks to R - left to my devices in these situations we would have done a series of long, circular walks.
We walked around Wardour Castle, opting to not go in. Castles in the UK and Ireland are like Cathedrals in Italy and France - after a while, they are so ubiquitous that we become jaded and pass them by. Now that's a first world problem!
Our final mile today was mostly uphill and since the weather is getting warmer, we were grateful for the end and our Jaguar ride to the Fleur de Lys inn.
A clean bathroom and a puffy bed - heavenly.
Good night -
EB

May 20 Photos