Witchampton

Geoff and I were up and out early this morning to avoid the heat, out wandering the myriad paths and tracks which criss cross the farming landscape above Badbury Rings around Witchampton. I think sometimes people can view farmland as second class walking, though they're wrong, you'd be surprised just how much there is to see out here, it's a much more diverse landscape than you'd think. This rich chalkland, the land, the flora and fauna, it's tracks, all have been moulded and shaped by millennia of evolving farming practices and human activity.  Of course not all of the practices and activities have benefited the landscape, farming expanded destructively through the 20th century, though I've definitely seen a huge increase in sympathetic farming and nature conservancy of the last 30 years. The hedged trackways and shaded paths, the copses and larger woods, the chalk grassland are all brimming with life, and the field boundaries too, are often now rough grass and wild flowers. All this landscape has been walked throughout those millennia by those doing the shaping too. So you're really walking in the footsteps of our ancestors. Connected walking sparks your imagination, and mine soars when plugged into the land. Our walk today was just over 10 miles, and very nice it was too.