Early start today to be able to fit more in

Today met so many different people and had some really good chats!

DAY 6 – Itinerary

A – Andover – Hampshire
B – Ludgershall Castle – Wiltshire
C – Amesbury – Wiltshire
D – Old Sarum Castle – Wiltshire
E – Old Wardour Castle – Wiltshire
F – Shaftesbury – Gold Hill – Dorset

G – Bournemouth – 1 x night

Andover

LUDGERSHALL

Everyone is so friendly they all want to stop and talk what a relaxed atmosphere!

A very small little country town that used to be known for its sheep and corn

The castle was built in this town in 12th c and the town prospered and became well known, in the Domesday book it was noted down as Litlgarsele

Pass by Weyhill – St Michael and all angels church along the way

LUDGERSHALL CASTLE

COunty – Wiltshire

Built as a medieval fortress in late 11 c by Edward of Salisbury and was royal property

A really small town with only a few shops along the main road

In 1210 King John improved the cadtle and used it as a hunting lodge

Have to use the imagination to see what it was like back when Heny III lived there
Everyone loves their dogs over here and they look after others dogs as well – its so cute to see this 🙂

AMESBURY

This are was crowded with tourists mainly because of Stonehenge and the surrounding historical ruins and attractions, saw most of the campervans Ive seen all trip today – actually, I would have thought to see more campervans driving around and more signs to show camping grounds but to my surprise there isnt many (?)

Parked at central car park and its nice and close walk to the town

A very small quiet and boring town not much going on but the local wetherspoons pub other than that there are a lot of walking fields and a relaxed stress free lifestyle

The clear and beautoful running waters of the River Avon
St Mary & St Melor church
There is also an old Amesbury Abbey behind the church which is now private property and a nursing home – who wouldnt want to be here in your last years on the earth!
The wetherspoons pub quite popular pub with heaps of cheap drink and food options – real pub food

OLD SARUM

District – Salisbury
County – Wiltshire

Around 5000 yrs ago this chalk hilltop was a place of respect and reverence and later turned into a powerful hill fort by the Celtic peoples

I met the nicest Welsh couple here, I was sitting reading a book about England on the castle ruins and they came up with their dog (everyone has dogs here and walks them constantly! its like a huge Surry Hills lol) so they ended up sitting down and we talked for an hr, they had a campervan and were driving aorund England, such a great experience that would be… one day!

Illustration of Old Sarum now from overview – there is so much history here!!

After the years of the roman invasion of 43AD a small town built by the main road that led to Dorchester and by the time William the Conqueror built the castle that is here now, this place was already of great importance

The lower chapel – this was the chapel of st margaret the nave and chancel were vaulted
The main castle area of Old Sarum
The view of where the remains of the Cathedral are
The Highways are beautiful to drive on!

WILTON

District – Ryedale
COunty – Yorkshire & the Humber

Main reason I wanted to go here was for Wilton House, but that was closed only opening end of OCT

Wilton means “the settlement by the Rover Wylye” and has been occupied since the stone ages

Cute buildings all along the side streets
Again some beautiful clear water ways along the walk to the town centre

Wilton was burnt to the ground 3 times!

There used to be 12 churches in Wilton! First church to be built here was around 860CE

Alfred the Great became king in 871CE and one of the first things he did was to convert the priory into an abbey and on that land is the Wilton Eatate

OLD WARDOUR CASTLE

County – Wiltshire

now THIS was the narrow country roads of Cranborne Chase AONB

WHOA! Talk about 1 lane narrow country roads! Most of the way there it was just a country lane and had to pull over to the side and stop and reverse or let other cars go – generally everyone is friendly and waves… not used to this kind of niceness on the roads! 😇😂

I JUST made it to be able to get inside and have a look around, they closed at 3:40pm and thats exactly when I made it in, I batted my eyelashes, used the line that im from Australia and come all this way and got in for 15mins quick tour around – phew cos this was around 1hr return trip out of the way to my accommodation for the night, the little narrow streets really added extra time onto the trip (but well worth it)

The main entrance of Old Wardour was built as a medieval “show castle” designed to impress! Medieval castles were really admired by the Elizabethans and this one was really impressive due to its interesting hexagonal shape

Again, some awesome narrow and steep steps leading to the ground floor

The grotto was built in 1792 by Josiah Lane of Tisbury utilising stones from the castle ruins

SHAFTESBURY

County – Dorset

More small narrow roads but Im getting used to it now!

Main reason to go here – GOLD HILL! – this has been on my dreamboard since I can remember, and funny thing is that Id already been to Shaftesbury on my last trip in 2018 with some friends and I totally missed it! I didnt do my research and I didnt know where this was so this is one of the reasons why I like researching before I head overseas… cos I have missed out on some important attractions

This was the only reason I came to Shaftesbury – it was out of the way and id already been there before in 2018 but missed seeing this!

I had the most random experience here! I walked across the main street and I see this nicely dressed good looking guy walking out from one of the alley ways and we catch eyes and then he comes up to me like he knows me and hugs me so tight and says “hello” in his british accent – he tells me that he was on a skype call with The Cure who are aparently going to play in england or something and he says that he was playing guitar over skype with them or something or other he was just so excited when telling me his story! I have no idea where the hug came from but he hugs me again and im like “umm, seriously im a hugger myself but im not used to this! im Australian!” and he just says hey, all us cockneys are like this! and then we high 5 and walk off! I still had his aftershave lingering on my scarf for the rest of my day… WTH – SO RANDOM lol but had a good laugh and shake of the head as I was walking back to my car – I LOVE THE UK!!!

Looking from bottom up
The 14c church at the top of the hill

BOURNEMOUTH

Arrive a bit after 6pm so it was getting dark

A beautiful hotel with amazing sea views! I got a great top corner room with sea views – im def going to sleep in and enjoy the late 12pm check out

Weather was nice blue skies and smog coming in the afternoon as the contrails were a lot today so the blue sky was gone by the early afternoon which was a shame – always seems to happen