Highclere and Chichester 30th July to 6th August

We caught up with friends in Great Bedwyn. Phil's step father worked with Jeff on a farm at Lambourn in 1978 when Phil and Jeff joined the local Great Shefford Young Farmers Club. We have visited them each time we come to the UK but sadly they have never been able to come out to NZ.  They take much delight in taking the mickey out of our kiwi accents hence Diana calls Jeff "Jif" and Phil loves to ask " say this word Sandra" ...then rolls about laughing.  They have a Down Syndrome son and Diana has Parkinson which is tragic.  

Jif wearing his birthday apron with Di and her JIF birthday cake.

In the UK charcoal BBQ's are the thing, which given the difficulty in managing the temperature, we thought another of the idiosyncrasies here.

The area around Great Bedwyn includes Newbury which is a nice town and has the Kennett and Avon canal passing through. Still has a stand-alone butcher near the bridge who has great patter, we like to support these businesses as it is tough competing with the supermarkets.  We went into the town a couple of times for supplies and give the dog a walk on the canal path.  

The pub beside this cafe is called the "Wagon and Horses".

We were invited for aperitifs by folks next door to our housesit. Malcolm was one of the brothers that owns the farm estate. During the day Malcolm had decided to cart a couple of old big bales to the farm manure pile and then set them alight. It was the hottest day of the week and English summer thus far at 29C. His weather finger in the air told him the wind direction was OK and a thunderstorm was forecast. The farm estate houses spent the day and the following enveloped in smoke and some irate neighbours let him know about it. There was a tap on the door when we were having drinks and a tenant gave him his pedigree to which he intern advised " I am not @#! God so cannot control the wind or amount of rain". Think maybe burning in the Autumn, as his wife had said, would have been the path of least resistance.

Next day we visited another YFC who has a 600 cow dairy farm now managed by his son. Alastair had been farming with his father near Lambourn since 1953 and originally had 180 cows then to 250 cows. When his son took over a few years ago; the herringbone milking parlour was replaced with a rotary as James had been to NZ and wanted to improve productivity in the English climate. Cow numbers increased to 600, year round milking, contracted to Sainsbury's supermarket at around 43p per litre. Not paid by kg as in NZ. Even though it is summer here all cows and calves are kept in huge sheds because they get more litres per cow than if they were out on the grass fields using energy. This does not sit well with us. They also have the issue of dealing with all the slurry, environmental pressures and Sainsbury's increasing box ticking. They use thousands of litres for wash down, cleaning etc. Son James has put in a biomass burner for heating the water. It would not be viable without the UK agri subsidy they receive. We wonder where it will all end constantly expanding to stand still.

Biomass boiler and controller

They buy in the chip because they do not manage the woods on the farm.

This is Alastair's son in law Luke,who along with their daughter, also live on the farm in one of the houses. Luke has completed a Nuffield Scholarship and produces what they call chard or charcoal for a number of uses. Very enterprising man and being able to work at home is very necessary as Alastair's daughter has MS.

We had several more walks in woods and about until we finished up on Saturday with the housesit. In the UK there are thousands of public walkways, bridleways signposted that cut across fields which may have crops. Some land owners leave a narrow path easily recognised or you make your way in what you think is the right direction. Great fun and we both love these always interesting walks.

Bruno our housesit dog is at the end of the lead on the public footpath through a field of oats.

We left Woolton Hill, Highclere and headed to Chichester to spend time with our great friend Marj. Now retired from medicine she travels, sails, cycles and looks out for her Mum. Marj had put us onto Peak Tours, who we cycled with in Provence, she has done dozens of tours with them. Another friend, from the Isle of Wight; Suzanne, was also staying so lots of laughter.

Next day a walk on the South Downs Way. Got the bus near Marj's house to the start at Cocking as Chichester backs on to the National Park. The South Downs Way is a 160 mile walk of which we did 12 miles. A perfect day and our walk took us past where Marj works with the Sussex  Wildlide Trust in the winter coppicing Hazel. 

The coppice stems are used for Sussex fencing, stakes in Garden centres etc. 

The walkers Marj, Suzanne and I.

A view from the top of the South Downs. Classic English countryside in the south.

To our delight there was a village cricket match on the go when we walked back through Lavant to Chichester. Sitting around the park watching for a while was hard to beat.

Marj cooked an amazing meal for Jeff's continuing birthday that night.  Beef Wellington perfectly done  with greens, potato bake and good wine.  Dessert was a mound of profiteroles. Thought we had died and gone to heaven. 

For our penance, long walk the day before not withstanding, Marj had us out for a cycle next day along quiet roads for 27miles/44km with a coffee stop in Compton. We were very pleased with how we felt given we had not cycled since Provence some seven weeks ago. 

Thankfully Marj has a few cycles, helmets and shoes to borrow. This is a typical signboard. We had stayed at Rowland Castle a couple of weeks previous.

In the afternoon we walked into the city to do a shop at Marks and Spencers the go to department store in the UK for good quality and value. Another celebrity  bottle of bubbles, this time Pelorus brought by Suzanne, and then in the  evening we strolled up to the Earl of March pub for dinner. Jeff birthday celebrations having had a good weeks effort by now felt we had honored his 70th in style.

Yesterday we decided to visit friends in Wimborne, Dorset with Marj. Many years ago we would all meet up with Geoff and Lisa at the Bath New Year sales. The idea was to see who got the best bargain then meet at the Green Tree pub, reknowned for it's bangers and mash for lunch to view the spoils. One year we only bought a sink plug for the accommodation we were working from and Geoff said " we just did not get it".  Geoff is a retired GP with a passion for classic cars and Lisa works as a speech therapist at Salisbury hospital. Their daughter had recently stayed with us on her gap year travelling in NZ. Before we got to their home we went for a walk around Wimborne known for the  Minster which includes a medieval chained library from 1686. The books are actually chained as back in the day the public were not trusted with valuable books, one is from 1343 on how to evade spiritual pitfalls and tomes in Latin written on lambs skin.

Marj and I on the walk around Wimborne on the Castleman Trailway.

This is called the Lady Wimborne bridge from 1853 that was used as a rail bridge until 1977. Certainly not utilitarian and unkempt now but had its glory days.

One of Geoff Ottleys classis cars, Jaguar XK. They took it for a run at a very fast clip.

So today is organising ourselves to fly out of Heathrow at 9pm having completed our grand tour of Spain, France and the UK having left home on the 4th May, phew! It has been all we could have hoped for; fun, fascinating, filled with laughter, good friends and safe. We fly to Port Douglas arriving 32 hrs after we leave Heathrow 😴 to celebrate my sisters 60th birthday with her friends. Home to Nelson night of 15th August is the plan.