Day 3 - Friday 4th July - Shaftesbury to Salisbury

Another sunny start for the journey into Wiltshire, and the second longest day in miles of the whole route.
I was just minutes from the hotel in Shaftesbury when I crossed the county boundary and followed a little path through the grassy hollow of Long Bottom.

A series of very narrow lanes led me to Higher, then Middle and Lower Coombe - the last, of course, actually the highest of the three.
Smart big houses and equally smart cars suggest this is a prosperous area hanging off Shaftesbury's coat-tails.

At the hamlet of West End I took to a very pleasant track, part of the Wessex Ridgeway (memories of 2022).

 
Ahead was the bulk of White Sheet Hill, a challenge still to come.

Next a long lane, leading eventually to the A30 main road - once here an important trunk road between London and the South West, now relegated to more sedate status.

The climb up White Sheet began right after crossing the road, on a dusty gravel track. I took it in stages as the temperature was now rising.
At one point I paused to check location, and when I turned I found I had company. Lots of it...

White Sheet Hill, at just shy of 800 feet offers some good views.

It also marks the start of a ridgeway route, classed as a byway, which leads in a more or less straight line all the way to Salisbury, 14 miles away.
And that was my route. Like all ridge routes, like the Ridgeway National Trail, it can offer some fine views, but there are also long stretches where there is nothing much to see except the track ahead.

At Fovant Down the route passes above regimental badges carved out in the chalk hillside.

Apparently the villages nearby were used to host and support thousands of troops returning from battle, or as awaiting a next posting, during WW1, and the badges were cut to commemorate their presence.
Shortly after comes Chiselbury hill fort, an Iron Age enclosure of 10½ acres with banks and ditches. Today, with a cooling breeze, it made a good lunch spot, serenaded by a very enthusiastic skylark and with an abundance of butterflies. Still nine miles to go to Salisbury...

The track wandered on - skirting some deep green coombes to the south. Some of these, I thought, were more isolated than many Alpine valleys.

Then, albeit briefly, came civilisation in the form of Salisbury racecourse, where the track became a road and all the paraphernalia of horse racing was on show.

 
Not far beyond the smart buildings the track returned to its rough form, but here suddenly was the first glimpse of the cathedral, now just over three miles away.

Any thoughts that the track would make a grand entrance to the city were soon dashed, as it degenerated to a narrow rough path before reaching Harnham and the edge of Salisbury.

No entry here would be complete without a look at the cathedral, its huge spire always breathtakingly impressive.

Tonight there was a huge queue waiting to enter for a major music festival.

I opted for pizza instead.