This week we have been away again in the motorhome, enjoying walks and views like this one in my photo above, at Cranborne Chase.
On the edge of England’s west country, it is officially designated an AONB – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – and it isn’t difficult to see why. Rolling countryside provides a backdrop for long autumn walks and close-up interaction with wildlife.
You may think my photo below shows a random wide ranging picture of the English countryside. Well, that’s true – but if you zoom in on the white speck, slap bang in the middle of the shot, you will have located our motorhome. We were on a small campsite that is part of a sheep farm.
I took this shot after hiking high up on the ridge that hosts a long distance footpath from Shaftesbury to Salisbury. It demonstrates how remote we were: just us, our caravanning next door neighbour, and a flock of sheep to the east.
Incidentally, I did try counting the number of sheep, but fell asleep before I could finish 🙂
Cranborne Chase is also an International Dark Sky Reserve, which means that, when night falls, it is bloomin’ dark. There is, literally, no artificial light from anywhere around on this vast landscape, and so the star gazing is first class. There was also the twit-twoo of the local owl to keep us company.
Way out here, the only local shop is a farm shop, doing a great line in west country cheese. Regular followers will know that I require little persuasion to put together a regional cheese board, such as this one below. The best of England’s west country is represented here with (from left to right) Dorset Blue Vinny, Somerset Brie and Garlic Yarg, from Cornwall.
A few years ago I visited the farm in Cornwall where they make Yarg. The garlic variety is hard to come by outside of the west country. They wrap the cheese in leaves from local wild garlic plants, and these infuse it with the flavour and scent of garlic as it ripens.
The oatcakes are from Bath and the apples local.
An interesting feature in the landscape is the Fovant Badges. At the time of the First World War, the British Army were stationed here, for final training before travelling over the Channel to the trenches in France. The young soldiers amused themselves (or kept their nerves at bay) by carving large scale versions of their regimental badges into the chalk grassland on the side of local hills. Through careful maintenance and restoration, they are still visible today.
The lady (and sheep farmer) who owned our campsite told me that her father-in-law was one of those young men stationed here, while waiting for the call to fight in what became the Battle of the Somme, where thousands of young soldiers tragically died. On the morning when he was due to travel to France, he required emergency dental treatment, and was excused from going. He went on to live and have a son, that she had been married to for 60 years, and with whom she’d had a family. Ain’t it strange, sometimes, how life works out.
You can find out more, here, about the Fovant Badges.
This weekend is, of course, Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, when we honour all those who weren’t quite so fortunate to escape with their lives. I have been wearing my poppy with pride this week, and will leave you with some fittingly inspirational music from Stevie Wonder: Higher Ground.
A Different Kitchen 