Climbing by feet or by car

I'm just back from a fabulous holiday to Sicily, but before that I managed some lovely long walks in Cranborne Chase.

The first was along the old Ox Drove from Salisbury Racecourse, taking a detour to make it a loop that took in an area of chalk downland. It was early evening so the low light cast long shadows on the undulating ancient ground - this area had been cultivated during Mediaeval times I believe. There were still many flowers out, and I spotted an autumn gentian in bud - not quite autumn yet! Quite a rare plant and an indicator of unimproved grassland, not touched by fertilisers. The dead stems of orchids hinted at an amazing display earlier in the season.

The next morning we headed off to the Fovant Badges. These are regimental badges cut into the steep chalk escarpment running along the A30 off to Shaftesbury. We parked at the layby with the info board and walked up (very steep!) and over the ridge for spectacular views. The top includes Chiselbury Hill Fort, with its Iron Age ramparts clearly visible and bedecked with more beautiful chalk downland flowers.

We continued our walk along the same drove from yesterday (it runs all the way to Shaftesbury) before turning off onto some Open Access chalk grassland - amazing steep valley systems, with the sides once again chalk downland - devil's bit scabious just peeping out, dwarf thistle, bird's foot trefoil, ox eye daisy, knapweed, eyebright etc etc. We followed the valley almost down to Broadchalke, before heading back a different way albeit uphill, for beautiful views back across to the valleys we'd just traversed.

It was at this point we heard distant sounds of car engines - not your usual road cars, but what sounded like racing cars. I suddenly realised it was the day of the Gurston Down Hill Climb - a notable event on the racing calendar and ending at a point where it intersected our footpath! This meant we had to wait until all the cars had gone back down again, but certainly gave us something different to look at!

The final part of the walk was on of the ridge, looking back across the flatland below, and walking along an ancient path crossing the escarpment. Amazing to have this landscape on my doorstep!