Along the Wayfarer’s Walk to Ladle Hill

My mum recently read Nicola Chester’s ‘On Gallows Down’ and looking something to do over the Easter weekend, we decided to go for a walk along part of the Wayfarer’s way mentioned in the book.

Starting at the White Hill car park with Buzzards and Red kites riding the thermals overhead, we walked along the track through the area made famous by Richard Adam’s book Watership Down.

As we continued down, away from the horse gallops the landscape changed, flocks of Chaffinches chattered in the hedgerows, badger paths rambled their way down the steep banks, and every so often a pair of ears could been seen taller than the crops.

Crossing the road, we were met by the sight of around 10 hares, we all stood perfectly still, camouflaging ourselves by each one of us standing behind a fence post. It took one of the hares quite a while to realise he was being watched.

As the sun got lower in the sky we reached the hill fort and stood looking across the A34 at the rolling countryside.

The original idea was to be back in the car park for a picnic while watching the sun set, but a combination of taking too long and low cloud blocking the sun, we settled for eating the food we had brought with us in the back of our van.