Cranborne Chase Light Games

...the L O N G walk, from first bus to last bus, from Berwick St John, in the west of the Chalke Valley, south west Wiltshire, up and over this Ridge and down the other side to the other side of Tollard Royal, in Dorset.

And back, of course.

If this landscape is (was) good enough for Guy Ritchie and Madonna and Cecil Beaton whose house they bought and spring landscapes so plush and lush, with steep wooded valleys, grazed by sheep and lambs, wood sorrel and bluebells deeper than any Axminster carpet - these are Royal Hunting Grounds of Olde, now an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - you can clearly see why.

The weather settled down quickly, highly dramatic (where I preferred it) at the beginning with the very hilly escarpments and just nicely perfectly  dapply sunny for the majority of the rest of the day. It did cloud over the last hour though.

You can just see the narrow single track road up, on the very left of the shot. You have to step into the bank when a car comes.

Not without some justification, The Times featured a walk starting and ending in Tollard Royal as one of their Top Ten. But I think they presumed their readers wouldn't be restricted by getting to their luxury accommodation, sumptuous meal by 4 boneshaking, hour long buses per day, cheap sausage rolls and a stupidly heavy rucksack (David, your 120-400mm is putting on weight!) 

Tollard Royal is where the Larmer Tree Festival takes place, which some of you may have heard of/been to.

My feet do not exist today (Wednesday) so prob no Blip - I think I'm allowed a day off from photography)

And it took me half hour to even choose which to Blip and then only from the first couple of hundred...