Well, it sometimes seems like it will never stop raining. According to the Met Office southern England saw the wettest February since their records began in 1836. Of course, we didn’t know all this when we booked our March trip to Cholderton on Salisbury Plain.
So, Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau, which means the mud could have been a lot worse. And, by some miracle, it stopped raining, just for us! For our Saturday walk we parked at Woodhenge, a circular timber henge monument not far from Durrington Walls. Clearly those neolithics had gone to a lot of trouble to make this area extra special. Durrington Walls is the biggest henge in Europe, and we had a clear view of the Cursus – a hand constructed earthwork roughly 3km long – still very obvious 5000 years after it was built. Our path ran roughly parallel to this before we joined “The Avenue” to approach Stonehenge in almost certainly the ritual footsteps of our ancestors.
Salisbury Plain is pretty big and flat, so it’s amazing how small the massive stones of Stonehenge look from quite a long way away. I’m guessing that 5000 years ago it was more striking – there being fewer lorries chuntering past on the A303.
From Stonehenge we headed south to the many tumuli on Normanton Down, where we paused for lunch. Then things got interesting in terms of flooding. We needed to cross the River Avon, but at Lower Woodford the path was well under water with the river surging under the bridge. We doubled back and stuck with the road, crossing the river safely at Amesbury – local cafes and pubs providing some welcome refreshment and a bit of a warm-up.
For our Sunday walk we moved forward three millennia to investigate the Roman town of Silchester. It is notable because it was never built over, unlike pretty much every other Roman town in Europe. Years of fascination for the archeologists, but for walkers it is the impressive town walls that continue to amaze. Still a good 10ft high, they made a stunning backdrop to our sunny (yes, sunny!) picnic lunch. The only hitch was the flooded footpath after we left the pub. It sat between us and the car park, and there wasn’t time to go round before it closed in. So, no choice but to end the walk with a bit of a paddle. The pub had the motto: “Hic manebimus optime” (here we will remain most excellently). If we had, we would at least have kept our feet dry.
Ali
A Seaside Ramble
Many thanks to Chris for organizing a splendid walk, albeit on a rather damp and dreary day. Eleven of us met in Maldon – a great turnout considering the weather – and headed out along the sea wall. There was welcome shelter en route in the form of Mundon church. Bits of the church date back to the 14th century with a tower added in Tudor times. The brick bits were added the 1700s, as were the unusual baroque wall paintings. It has been otherwise largely untouched, despite a close encounter with a V2 in 1943.
A short distance away were the Mundon petrified oaks. They are not fossils but have been dead a very long time & were mentioned in the Domesday Book. They are a spooky reminder of when the peninsular used to be forested. A few of us completed the outing with a very pleasant music session in the Mighty Oak Tap Room.