To Heytesbury (May 18) to Hindon (May 19)

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

The Giant White Horse

He said:
A great day for walking, bright weather and no rain... helping us forget our sore feet... for a while. Yes, there were some interesting points on the path, like the large white horse on the hillside created on the side of an iron age fort.. But overall, the scenery today was nice, but rather boring being about 11 miles of the same thing; a road bordering a gigantic military live fire (keep out) area.
The Westbury White Horse was created long ago and maintained now to keep the proper color and shape. Originally exposed chalk on the side of a steep hill, it now seems to be covered with plaster or concrete and has a worn path just above it.
Hang gliders and paragliders were gathered for the strong, natural wind machine created on the top of that hillside. After a 30 minute break to watch the action and suitably chilled, we headed down to the small town of Bratton to see an old church and then meet a taxi to take us to our Hotel for the night.
cheers...

She said:
Giant, white puffy clouds and blue, blue sky. Mild wind, but perfect temp for walking. A sunscreen and chapstick day.
Back up to the Salisbury Plain and the gravel ring road around the military base. Being Monday, everyone was back at work and as we walked we heard the bombs exploding every minute or so. Also along the path we came across spent shell casings and targets near the woods.
Well, we wanted a rural route - be careful what you ask for. For the first four hours of our walk, we saw only eight people - 5 min. out of Littleton Panell we saw 3 kids playing in the woods, 2 dog walkers and 2 army guys near the base, and finally, a bike rider out of nowhere.
With only ourselves to entertain ourselves, the conversation (when it happened at all) ranged from the silly to the sublime.
The Silly:
(We saw a sign that said "Private Road, NO MOD."
Motors on Demand?
Men on Dairy?
Monkeys over Donuts?
Mothers on Demerol?
The Sublime:
I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks to God each day and lifts its leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in Springtime wear a nest of robins in her hair.
Blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah (OK, not so sublime)
For poems are made by fools like me -
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
On the (very) old turnpike from Salisbury (then called Sarum) to Bath we came across a large stone sign post dated 1757.
We ate our lunch (shout out to Tony and Rosemary from Summerhayes B&B for the delicious packed lunch - loved the tomato and cheese sandwiches and the homemade banana bread) overlooking the Westbury White Horse dating from the late 1600's.
We ended our walk for the day in Bratton and poked around in St. James Church, built in 1400.
The Garden House Hotel is spacious and comfortable - looking forward to a good sleep -
Cheers -
EB

May17 Photos

Just the two of us walking

He said:
FYI: just the two of us, we are not part of an group, we do not have a guide but we do have maps and path descriptions. Each day, we are free to do and see what we want, but we must get from our starting point to the destination, these have all been planned in advance.
We had this all arranged based on our preferences by Footpath Holidays.
They have done a wonderful job. Thanks to them, all is going smoothly and is organized to the level we appreciate. We really can walk from one accommodation to the next. We enjoy it more also because our luggage gets forwarded to the next place each day (no 40 lb packs to carry).

So far, we stayed at the:
Ivy House Hotel in Marlborough
The Lodge in Avebury
Rosemundy Cottage B&B in Devizes
Summerhayes B&B in Littleton Panell

cheers,
R

A gray day with rain and UXB proximity

He said:
Cheers!
Today was our walk from Devizes to Littleton Panell, 11 miles continuing along the up and down hill theme we will soon grow used to. In the mean time, we are just footsore and a bit soggy after our 3rd day of walking. It was a gray, windy and wet day, adding drama and some discomfort to our first walk near the Salisbury Plain Military area. This is where they do artillery and other bomb/military related practice.
Royal artillery
The ridge that we walked along is adjacent to the practice area, and is perhaps 50 miles (as the crow flies) from Stonehenge, which is also part of Salisbury Plain.
We have noticed how few markers there are for the Wessex Ridgeway path we are following, this makes it hard sometimes to find the way among the many choices leading in many directions. Because of this, we walked an extra mile or so today.... that reminds me, I need to stretch again.


She said:
A few last words about Devizes:
Delicious breakfast at Rosemundy Cottage - everything homemade and locally sourced - fresh as fresh can be. A wonderful B+B with friendly and helpful hosts.
Gray all day today. Misty showers in the morning and a few good downpours in the afternoon. Thankful for Goretex. Today was a slog... more of a day to "get through" rather than to enjoy. Still, always something interesting -
Found ourselves in a field of teenage cows - from previous walks we know their MO (or, MOO?). They are way more curious than adult cows and will walk on over to you until you start walking on over to them - then they freak out and run away. Cute and comical.
As R mentioned, the waymarks along the path were scarce. We came upon a tiny village and a small group of people heading towards their little village hall - asked them for directions and they obliged (though each had his/her own opinions and versions of where we should go.) They were going to a "wine and nibbles" event thanking all villagers who had participated in an annual Scarecrow event (photo will explain.)
Also came upon a conservation group at the edge of the military training range - they were counting hawks and owls. Four guys in a Range Rover with thermoses and sandwiches.
Skirting the giant military base on Salisbury Plain was a big drag as the road was paved and that's tough on the feet after a few miles.
At about 3 p.m.I had my first meltdown of the trip (I'm sure there'll be more.) I was wet and tired and hungry. R knew best, so we stopped in the middle of a field and ate our excellent packed lunches from Rosemundy Cottage. The dessert of lemon cake was outstanding and did the trick. I fairly flew through the field and sailed into our B+B for the night - Summerhayes.
We walked to the local grocer and brought back food and wine and finished our day on a high note.
Devizes to Littleton Panell - 11 miles
Wrong turns now and again - 1 mile
Cheers -
EB

May 16 Photos

We have seen the sun!.... Avebury to Devizes - May 15

He said:
A wonderful day for weather; we saw the sun and many puffy clouds today, unlike yesterday.... This was our first 'longer' day of walking, 10 miles, with a few ups and downs along the way. We saw our first iron age hill fort, the Cherhill monument, mtn bicyclists, cross country runners, golfers, kite flyers, and our first 19th century white horse (exposed chalk) on the side of a hill. Our B&B is on the Kennet & Avon Canal, complete with touring barges, ducks, and a tow path making the walking easy. We went to the city center of Devizes for dinner, it was churning with the burning urge of many youth's out for a Saturday night at the Pub.

She said:
A few more words about Avebury:
The whole exposed circle thing is thanks to General (I think) Kiellor (sp.?), the marmalade tycoon who spent gobs of his money excavating the circle sights and gobs more to stand upright what stones he found.
All the stones are about same width as they come from the same geologic feature, a compressed layer of sandstone.
Mediocre Fish and Chips at The Red Lion. And, no ghost (though I did feel a bit of a weird presence in the middle of the night - maybe the dead wife jumped the fence between our Lodge and the Red Lion to give me What For as I did sort of call her a wuss for not showing herself at dinner. Forgot to ask our innkeeper, Andrew, about that, so I'll go with either that explanation
Or...
I'll make one up here:
The first Lord Avebury from around the 14th century(remember, we were staying in his house), probably had many, many skeletons in his many, many closets. And one of them just got loose. Found someone susceptible (me) and spooked it up.
Innkeeper Andrew remembers his Dad taking him to the GI base nearby (closed down now) when he was a kid to watch the GIs play baseball, which they did every Sunday. Andrew loved it; it is a sweet memory for him.
Co-lodgers at The Lodge knew Palo Alto - as the home of Facebook. She, from New Zealand, he from London do a lot of traveling around the world checking out stone circles and other mystical, new age-y spiritual places. They told us about the Michael and Mary Line, an imaginary line that bisects several stone circles and churches in England and all the churches on the Line are named for either Mary Magdalene or the Archangel, Michael. They also loved Sedona, AZ (though I think they would be more at home in Santa Cruz as they had a very crunchy aspect to them, too.)
Marlborough to Avebury - 6 miles; circular walk around Avebury 3.5 miles.

Beautiful fields of Rape (cash crop grown for rapeseed oil). Probably took too many pictures of those fields, but the sun was shining and their color was so saturated and vibrant, I couldn't resist.
Bug of the Day - a fly-sized black thing with long hanging-down back legs. Bummer and creepy. They didn't care for us, though, and only interacted with us when we walked into them.
The path followed a Roman road for several miles. Very straight and very level.
Also crossed a Civil War battlefield (1643) and climbed to a hill fort where the Royalists from that battle pushed back the Parliamentarians so far that the Parliamentarians were forced, in retreat, to tumble with their horses over a hugely steep cliff. (The Royalists won that one.)
Finally saw our first White Horse carved into a chalk hillside (there are 13 in Wiltshire; they range in age from 3000 years old to 300 hundred years old, with a few only a few decades old. They are kept scrubbed clean because if they weren't grasses would start to grow in the dirt that blows onto them and there goes a good tourist attraction.)
Took the long way round to our B+B (Rosemundy Cottage). Arrived happy, tired and hungry.
Ate at The Bistro in town. R had a bottle of Bishop's Tipple (the local ale) and I struggled through another bad glass of house white wine (time for me to switch to ale.)
Small World co-inky dink - Innkeeper Tony at Rosemundy Cottage works for a company that makes something that Cisco buys and he's traveled to San Jose, CA many times.
That's it -
Cheers -
EB
Avebury to Devizes - 10 miles; to dinner and back - 1.5 miles.

May 15 Photos

Gobsmacked - Marlborough to Avebury, May 14

He said:
This was our first official day of walking, 6 miles along the Wessex Ridgeway followed by a few miles around Avebury Henge and Stone Circle. A cold, windy day, with a few drops of rain. The good news is that my legs work fine.
I am gobsmacked about the size and age of Avebury, started about 2500BC. I've always wanted to be able to use the word 'gobsmacked' in a sentence, and it seems that you can only do that while being in the UK. The henge is the 10 meter deep circular pit outside the stone circle, it was completed first, henge means an architectural structure using an earthworks. The outer stone circle is 400 meters in diameter, and some of the stones are as heavy as 100 tons. It turns out that Stonehenge is not a henge at all, just a stone circle (a very nice one), but I suppose Stonehenge sounds better. Avebury is the largest stone circle in Europe. It was built in chalk ground under the top soil, at the time it was constructed, all of England was covered in forest.
Those were the days.
By the way, The Lodge B&B where we are staying in Avebury, might be the only place in the world where you can sleep (in a bed) that is within an ancient stone circle, and the Pub where we had dinner: The Red Lion, might be the only restaurant/bar within an ancient stone circle. In can feel the spirits, but we did not see the ghost at the Pub.

She said:
A few last words about Marlborough:
It has the widest High Street in England, bookended by two churches. At one end, the Redundant Church (which means it is no longer used for worship); at the other, Saint Mary's, on the original town green which is ringed with beautiful Georgian homes and a few beautiful 17th and18th century homes as well.
Marlborough had a giant fire in 1620 that destroyed most of the homes (thatched roofs have been banned in Marlborough since then; not so in other towns in Wiltshire) and when it rebuilt it did so to a very high standard - not much riff-raff in Marlborough.
The friendly caretaker guy at the old Town Hall invited us in and showed us around. Most Town Halls in this part of the country are rebuilt every 100 years or so (Marlborough's is no exception.)
The River Kennet flows through Marlborough. It is the largest tributary of the Thames and in the summer, contributes half of the Thames River's flow. Since it flows from a chalk aquifer, the water is naturally purified and delicious. Such clean water also drove the brewing industry in this area (how nice) and it is renown for its brown trout.
There is a very atmospheric Victorian cemetery in Marlborough - I took many photos as I seem to be obsessed with Victorian cemeteries wherever we go (weird.)
We bought half a chicken and some sides at Waitrose (like Safeway) and ate a great, cheap meal in our room. Those of you who have travelled with me know this is one of my favorite ways to eat while on vacation. If the room is big (ours was) and has a view (ours did) and there's a grocery store nearby, $15. beats $100. every time.
The shower at The Ivy House was heavenly.

On to Avebury:
A couple of miles of the path went through a horse stud farm - long "Gallops" fenced in along the path for running the horses.
Walking through Fyfield Downs, we had to get out of the way of a flock of sheep being herded from one field to the next. They really do follow each other blindly and create a wall of motion that pretty much can't be stopped (egged on by their sheep-herding dog.)
Fyfield Downs is an area of great geologic interest in England - strewn with Sarsen stones, the stones used at Stonehenge and most other stone circles in this area.
Speaking of stone circles - Avebury Stone Circle is impressive. It is a World Heritage Sight and rightly so. As part of England's National Trust, it is beautifully maintained though this is surprising as it is open to the the public 24 hours a day, every day of the year. You can walk amongst the stones and touch them to your heart's content. There is no litter and no graffiti. John Farrow, our National Trust guide, had many tidbits to share (900 stone circles in England, Avebury is actually circles within circles, heaviest weighs 100 tons, Avebury stones are larger than the stones at Stonehenge, but because Avebury's have no lintels, Stonehenge gets all the press, etc., etc., etc.,) The stones at Avebury have not been shaped or carved in any way. They are Sarsen stones that were originally under a tropical sea at one time in our earth's wacky past and even show holes from ancient mangrove roots that grew through them. Hopefully our pictures show some of the mystery - otherwise they must be seen in person to be believed.
A short walk from the Circle is Silbury Hill - possibly a burial site but the better story is that it was an ancient pilgrimage site and pilgrim's carried handfulls of soil from whence they came and deposited them at the Hill, actually making the Hill quite tall. Those crazy neolithic guys!
The Lodge in Avebury is our B+B - the original home of the original Lord Avebury. Posh in an eclectic, jumbled way. And, vegetarian. Who knew? But , they only serve breakfast, so we're off to The Red Lion, two doors down, for a pub dinner and a couple of pints. The Red Lion is one of the most haunted sights in Britain. The proprietor threw his wife and her boyfriend down the well, they died, he hung, and she still haunts the place. Can't wait!
Cheerio -
EB
(Check out the pictures. Mur, John and Linny - horse chestnut trees in full bloom galore here. Shades of Workman Ave.!)

link to the May 14 photos

Pints!

She said:
12:40 p.m. - Pints of the local - Morris Mayhem for R and Abbot for me. Lunch to come.