Old track

I love this avenue of Beech trees flanking the Faulston Drove as it descends into the Ebble Valley from Faulston Down. The drove is the course of a Roman road, quiet possibly a trackway long before that, one which has seen continuous use right up to present day. The graffiti scribed into the drove's venerable trees have stories to tell too, of loves and lives in a rural setting, and broader events of national importance, such as the coronation of Edward the VII and the sinking of the Lusitania. It's a veritable walk through the ages; and on a morning such as this morning a sublime one.

Faulston Down

A badly stitched panorama, I know, the photos weren't taken to create a panorama. Though I think you still get a feel for the rolling expanses in areas of the Chase, and their beauty, something that reaches deep inside you. This is Faulston Down as viewed from Throope Hill near Coombe Bissett just west of Salisbury. Lovely. I've not been able to get out over the Chase since Geoff's arrival, him not being up to the long walks required.  So I jumped at the opportunity today, and it was marvellous! As I made my way along hidden trackways thronged with hedgerow shrubs bursting with bounties, up onto the exposed downs, I felt a connection to the land, it felt right. A smile spread across my face whilst the worries and pressures of modernity in our failing nation ebbed away.  What they say about walking and well being are well founded, I felt a different person after my walk.