Blogs from Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 4

At last. We have left the cold of our NZ winter and arrived yesterday in England to wonderful warm weather. I do find that the cold of winter is getting harder to take, so I am very pleased to look forward to the next 3 months in the warmer climates. We left home, NZ, at 4.45pm on Monday the 2nd July and flew NZ to Hong Kong then right through to Heathrow, London, arriving at 2.30pm on Tuesday the 3rd, so a trip of 30 hours after crossing the date line. Very tiring but thats the way it is. So now we are spending the next 4 weeks in Corsham at Pete and Helens. We just love this place and all of the surrounding area, where the walking is great, the country side magic, and the ... read more

The weather was nice all the way down to the New Forest, with the only hold up being Lyndhurst, where I was only 2 miles from the campsite, so just accepted it, rather than look for a detour. This site was annoying, as reception was only open for a couple of hours in the morning, and pitching was a free for all. Once I'd pitched I did a reccie and got my onboard tank filled with water. Wednesday morning I had booked a ferry to take me over to the Isle of Wight, so wasn't going to be around for reception to be open,but I'd already paid so didn't really mind. The port was only 8 miles away, but not knowing if the route down, would be easy, or a struggle, I gave myself over an ... read more

Thursday morning I took the full suss out for a bit of an explore, and the bike was in its element. All the rocks and ruts that had tried to break the 920, were simply rolled over with very little problem. So I started trying a few routes that split off from the main tracks and found some amazing views of small beaches along the coast, all the while trying my best not to go to far to the bottom of the hill, as 1300 feet is a long way to go back up. I'd also decided to do the laundry that morning as the MET office had said it would be dry till the evening, but no, it rained off and on, pretty much from the time I put the washing on the line, till ... read more

Geo: 51.5848, -2.0996A drive to Great Somerford, a beautiful village Wiltshire village at the southern end of the Cotswolds, to stay with my cousin Meriel and her family. A short drive away is Malmesbury, supposedly the oldest continually inhabited town in England. Modern excavations have revealed the remains of an Iron Age fort which would date it back to around 500BC, but official records can trace Malmesbury back to the 5th century.The imposing 7th century Abbey sits atop the hill and became a site of pilgrimage and learning and later in the 10th century, Athelstan, first king of (all) England and grandson of Alfred the Great made Malmesbury his capital.The medieval streets are lined with honey colored stone buildings and the marketplace in the centre of town has a magnificently preserved 15th century market cross.But what ... read more

We arrived at Heathrow last week and went to Stephanie and Robin's new house in Romford, London to spend a couple of nights before heading south to Corsham, near Bath. So nice to catch up with the two of them and see their house which they only moved into a few weeks ago. A nice evening spent catching up then up early to catch the train, then tube, in to Oxford St, London to meet up with Terri Seamark from Kirkcaldie's days for a catch up. We had coffee and scones while we talked and Di went of to look around a couple of shops while Terri and I caught up with any gossip we knew and then the 3 off us went and did a bit of shopping in Oxford St. Terri left Di and ... read more