17 September – It was a beautiful , clear start as I left Iwerne Minster for the day I had labelled my Wessex Heights. I have long had an affection for the poem “Wessex Heights” by Thomas Hardy and indeed have written several posts about it before (found here). I was full of excitement and gratitude…
Category: The Wessex Ridgeway
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: The Stones to the Wheel – Ludwell to Iwerne Minster
16 September : The weather changed overnight and all at once it was that season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness”. I traipsed through wet fields past Ludwell watercress beds and then began the long, slow climb up to the view point at Win Green. Not much of a view today but a feeling of claustrophobic…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY : From the Stones to the Wheel – Hindon to Ludwell
15 September. The early morning sun was already making its presence felt through the trees alongside Green Lane as I ascended out of Hindon. As I turned to admire the view behind me one, then two ……….…. then around fifty……. hot air balloons caught my eye. They made their way like a flotilla of yachts…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Warminster to Hindon
14 September. The early morning warmth in the air boded well as I left Warminster, swiftly noted the suitably named Middle Hill and then Scratchbury Hill before reaching Heytesbury. What an idyllically situated village! I passed the ( very small) lock up; then residents taking offerings of jams, tomatoes and scarlet runners to their local…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Bratton to Warminster
13 September. Today the sun shone for the whole day and the walking was amazing. I left my superb air b and b and headed towards the Downs via Bratton church. I was reminded of my time three years ago walking the Pilgrims’ Way , when, as then, I came across a lady arranging the…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Market Lavington to Bratton
Thursday 12 September. Market Lavington to Bratton. Weather forecast a bit changeable today and there looked a few interesting villages en route so I came off the Downs again to explore them. I soon left Market Lavington and was out in the fields and woods. For the first half hour I came across a few…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Devizes to Market Lavington
Wednesday 11 September: Resumed the Wessex Ridgeway from the end of The Quakers Walk, Devizes and walked along the Southern side of the Kennet and Avon canal. Weather was a bit drizzly and I only passed one hardy couple. There was a slight detour where the towpath was closed and a trek along the A…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Avebury to Devizes
Monday 9 September. Left Talbothays, travelled via the bookshop in Marlborough where we bought “Dig, dig, digging” and arrived at a peaceful home in Trusloe, Avebury. Incense, affirmations and crystals added to the energy inherent in this landscape. The Neolithic stone circle is the world’s largest and the Dalai Lama, is said to have declared…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Introduction
I am ready and prepared to begin my walk through Ancient Wessex tomorrow. I have called the trek “From the Stones to the Wheel” because I am beginning at the immense stone circle at Avebury that lies inside Britain’s largest henge monument and finishing at St Catherine’s Tower in Abbotsbury. St Catherine was, of course,…
WALKING BY THE FLEET IN SPRING
For several weeks I had been feeling the call to be in Hardy’s Wessex and this delightful circular walk from Fleet to Langton Herring and back alongside the tidal lagoon was an apt reminder of what I had been so deeply missing. I have lost count of the times I have visited Dorset and can’t…
