Leaving the Inn full of breakfast I walked up the street between pollarded trees and well-presented, old brick and stone houses. Turning into fields I was struck by the sight before me, all the grass and hedges were coated in sparkling white frost, as if painted by the winter fairy. Blue skies and sunshine added to my feeling of contentment and best of all the mud had frozen. For the first hour of my hike my feet crunched on white "icing" that had yesterday been a brown slurry. I was reminded of those chocolate truffles with a hard chocolate casing which you crack to meet softness inside. Lines of mist blanketed distant low lying landscape, reflecting white in the winter sun. Weather is not in your control, and on a long distance walk you have to deal whatever it sends you, so a frosty, sunny, still, blue sky day in January is a joy to be cherished while it lasts.
With such thoughts I crossed fields, the busy A303 road, another field and then entered an extensive forest. Tracks were mainly good as I walked among the pines, birch and larch. At the edge of a village a large, blue "Thank you NHS" sign, attached to hay bales reminded me that the Coronavirus pandemic continued to restrain us with its cold and sickly hand.
I followed a river into the village of Haytesbury thinking of God, things we cannot control, and a little Serbian monastery I had visited one Easter. With such thoughts it seemed natural to visit the village church. A handsome affair at its best with the sun's light reflected off the white stonework. Inside I disturbed a lady with a vacuum cleaner who soon left me in peace to admire the chancel and read of its Norman foundation and many later changes.
Climbing out of the village the next section of the walk was along the high ground beside a wide valley. My route followed the boundary of the Army's Imber firing range, part of the large area of land on Salisbury Plain used by the Military for training. Military activity was not knew to the area, I walked around the sizeable earthworks of Scratchbury and Battlesbury iron age hill forts. With the surrounding steep slopes they would be easy to defend and had commanding views over the nearby valley. Middle Hill, between the two had a tumulus, a bronze age burial mound sprouting trees. There were several people out walking across these summits, more than I seen on previous days, maybe the sun and scenery had brought them out.
Returning to lower ground I walked by a Military camp with somewhat superfluous signs warning of the razor wire fencing they were attached to. Among the Army housing there was a NAAFI where I bought cup of coffee from a machine.
Although I have driven around Warminster many times this is the first time I have been in the town centre. I had wondered if the town's name was related to the nearby military establishments but the guy on reception at the inn said no, although he said there was a military college here. Wikipedia suggests the "War" in Warminster comes from the River Were which runs through the town.
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