A Walk in Wiltshire and Dorset 2018

In the hot summer of 2018 I went for a walk in south-west England: from Salisbury to Shaftesbury in a roundabout route that took five days. Most of the walking was on paths, over stiles, and through fields on public rights-of-way. We stayed in village pubs, and farm B&B’s, and ate in country pubs and “gastro-pubs” and not much else. 

The hilly country was covered in golden fields and ancient forests and old churches and castles (some of them still standing, some of them not so much). 

We ended with a train ride back to London and a very hot traipse across north London with delays on the platforms and sweltering train coaches at rush hour: a jarring change from the quiet, slow contemplative walk in a countryside laid-out a thousand years ago by  people who walked everywhere.