7 Oct. - Old Sarum

 Image: Camping ground and Salisbury Cathedral viewed from Old Sarum through the afternoon haze

A hill of chalk, by the river, near ancient paths - a position of importance + benefit has seen this otherwise unremarkable rise become an ever-morphing record of times + lives past. To stand atop its high remnant flint walls (1915 reconstructions?), twice surrounded by defensive ditches - giant circular 'ripples' of soil emanating from the castle at centre - is to stand alongside peoples whose unbroken (though often much troubled) line through generations across the millennia brought our world to being.

Rising tall + proud in the valley below, the spire of the 'new' cathedral - just 800 years old - points to the heavens, but truly the wonder here is the collective power of short-lived + earth-bound mortals, living, loving, toiling, revelling, birthing + passing ... Surviving.

What will we leave to astound visitors one thousand years hence?

Notes: Having read Edward Rutherfurd's Sarum many years ago, this was an obvious and rewarding destination. The camping site in view below is an easy walk both to Sarum and Salisbury but we left the rooftop of our rental camper raised while we were away and a gust of wind buffeted the vehicle, causing the stupid (how do you disable these damn things?!) alarm to sound, annoying our fellow travellers.