Day 7- Tuesday trail, The Knight's Castle

We started the day being dropped by our driver Kevin in Ansty. As you can see the ivy is starting to turn here but what you can't see are two goofy boxers who came to the gate to say hello before we started the walk. One was a puppy with the wigglies. Adorable!

Then as we made our way down to the maypole we passed two swans and some ducks, which in Dutch are apparently called meerkoet...but I figured out in England they are called Eurasian coots. Gillian was naming a lot of things in Dutch today! We also saw a REAL robin (not those thrushes we Canadians call robins) and a hawk. Witte kwikstaarts were flying around in a field as well. Any ornithologists who can translate Dutch would be helpful to me at this point!

Thanks to our tour organizer Allison Howell from Foot Trails for telling us that a witte kwikstaart is a white wagtail.

After getting lost (that was my fault) and back on track with the help of a local, we found our way to New Wardour Castle which has been now divided up into flats for some of the well off locals. There was a Bentley parked just to the right of this photo.

Back on track, we had to scoot to make it to the Forester Inn in Donhead St Andrew before they stopped serving lunch! But first, we were making our way across an open field when...

this tree dropped a hunk of wood two feet away from Gillian's head! I was calling it The Whomping Willow, but it was actually a gigantic oak tree. I suppose it was The Ornery Oak then?

This lovely willow by the mill was very well behaved thankfully. And we did not get lost again all day.

Our next stop was The Forester Inn, a very swish "pub" with operatic music playing. We felt slightly out of place with our hiking boots and backpacks, especially when Lady T____ arrived (the local Baron's wife) to thank the proprietor for providing the refreshments at her latest gathering. I kid you not, this place was rather high class. We enjoyed our cheddar and fruit chutney sandwiches and had a chat with Bill, a 94 year old local who had to steady himself on our table before he could make his way out to his scooter. He was adorable!

I bought a bag of "Sunset" apples for one pound from this bench. A lovely lady came out to tell us that the coconuts were left over from a village fundraiser for the church, but I just went with the apples!

She pointed us in the direction of Old Wardour Castle, which was left as a picturesque folly for the new castle. We could have stayed here for hours and we both took wayyyyy too many photos. Here is just one more...

Then we had to hustle off again as our driver Andy was waiting for us. Here is one last shot Gillian took as he was pulling up...

Andy dropped us off at our B&B The Compasses Inn in Lower Chicksgrove which is a lovely 14th century thatched building with a pub on the lower level and rooms on the upper level. It was used as a film location for Morris: A Life With Bells On a wonderful tongue in cheek spoof on Morris Dancing. See if you can spot the front of The Compasses Inn in this clip:

I love the post box in the wall on the right. Our room is under the thatched roof on the left. Off on our really huge hike tomorrow. Wish us luck!

23,818 steps today. 

Cheers!