He said:
We have had a day without a network connection, so this blog entry will cover two days of walking: Bratton Camp to Heytesbury, and Heytesbury to Hindon (then with a taxi to the Spread Eagle in Stourton, at Stourhead Gardens) . May 18 was a nice sunny day mostly, the kind of day that is nice for landscape photos, we walked 11 miles, plus a detour for a closed section of path. May 19 was a gray day, all day, but a comfortable day for walking. We walked only 8 miles on the path, then another 2 miles around the amazing Stourhead Estate and gardens, circa mid 1700's. Our path has now brought us out into the most rural farm areas, the ridges are perhaps a few hundred feet higher than the more fertile valley. The ridges are mostly chalk, good for grasses, not so good for other crops other than Rape (the plant with bright yellow flowers from which rapeseed oil is made). When we get to villages, they are quite small, perhaps a couple hundred people at most, and generally there is no place for us to spend the night. Because of this, our trip is arranged to bring us to a town nearby with B&Bs. Yesterday, this side trip brought us to Stourton, on the river Stour, and where the Stourhead Estate and gardens are. This post has a photo we took looking over the lake.
On May 18, we passed several iron age hill forts, some with large circular ramparts still effective after 2000 years of erosion. These hills also had several areas with strip lynchets, mostly for a defensive purpose. We both thought it must have been a lot of work to have to haul everything up the hill to the fort.
cheers...
She said:
Yesterday we finally said Good-Bye (Good Riddance) to the Salisbury Plain and the military base. That place drove me nuts. Big, flat plain with a boring gravel road around it. Yesterday, not only did we hear the bombs, we actually saw them exploding, too. I'm fine with army guys practicing their stuff so that when they do have to go into battle they know what their doing and can preserve our cushy lifestyle and I really thank them for it, but...I was just sick of the boring gravel road.
One upside of the boring gravel road was that we had a mile or so of making Silly Sounds. No one around to hear us, so a good chance to use our voices and mouths to make sounds not normally made by humans. This is a fun experiment that I dare anyone to try. Lots of laughs.
We came upon a bowl valley named Kidnappers Hole on the map. Looked like a perfect place for cattle, horse or sheep rustlers to hide their stolen livestock, so aptly named.
(From my observations so far this trip - cows are curious, horses are aloof and sheep have alien eyes.)
We walked through Warminster, the home of the British Army Land Warfare Training Center (hence the Salisbury Plain bombing sights) - this place was heavily secured and guarded. Dogs at the ready and every manner of fence and patrol.
MOD = Ministry of Defence (much more boring than Mothers on Demerol.)
Our final bomb training sight image was of target cars and farm equipment painted pink and yellow. Odd as the chance of real targets being those colors in a real war is pretty much slim to none.
Badgers abound in the countryside and their dens are huge and the entrance holes line the Path. They are master excavators and leave giant piles of rubble near their front doors.
We stayed at The Red Lion Inn in Heytesbury - a little rough around the edges but perfectly comfortable. Walked down to the other end of the High Street for fish and chips at The Angel Inn. Ended the night fat and happy.
Today was overcast but perfect temp for walking. It was a day of real country walking. Now that the boring gravel road was behind us, we had grass tracks, farm fields, shaded bridal paths and tiny country lanes. Gurgling streams. Birds singing wildly and happily. Giant dandelion meadows. Picture perfect villages. We walked 8 miles to Hindon, where a car service (a Jaguar) picked us up and drove us 15 miles to our accommodations for the night. We are at The Spread Eagle Inn on the grounds of the grand Stourhead Estate and Gardens. We wondered why our tour person had arranged for this stay so far off the path, but once we arrived we were thrilled with her choice. The gardens are spectacular with rhododendron bushes the size of large trees and a lake dotted with follies (decorative structures built by the ridiculously wealthy people who owned these crazy big country homes and had nothing better to do with their money than build nutty things like obelisks and temples to Apollo and grottoes and bridges.) R was in nature heaven, photographing such beautiful flowers and trees.
Our en suite bathroom has the no standing up, telephone handle shower thingy (those who have been to the UK know this well) - a challenge to use but a real sense of accomplishment when mastered without soaking the entire bathroom.
Excellent dinner down in the Inn's restaurant - and, again, we are fat and happy.
Over and out -
EB
May 18 Photos
May 19 Photos
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