Broad Chalke to Martin Down

Google Maps sent us along the A303 past Stonehenge, which isn't our favourite road. However, after passing Stonehenge, we turned left and drove over downland to Wilton on the outskirts of Salisbury. As we turned into the old centre of Wilton, we decided that we could happily live there! The same is true of Broad Chalke, a pretty village in the slightly more remote Chalke Valley. Whatever, it is a great place from which to start a walk; it has a good car park, at SU041255, near the Church, and is surrounded by glorious countryside. 

The weather was OK and we thought we'd manage the whole walk without getting wet, so we contacted Helen to say we were setting off, but might need rescuing from somewhere en route! We left Broad Chalke to the south, on "Church Bottom", soon overtaking two dog walkers who had parked at about the same time as us. We were climbing gradually, and we were soon surrounded in all directions by delightful hills, dry valleys and sheep.

We started to climb a little more steeply, heading up onto Middleton Down,  and we passed through an area of woodland. At the summit, we could have turned right onto Ox Drove, but we continue down towards Knighton Wood, descending slightly. This resulted in a delightful route, and I'd recommend it. On the map, the descent towards Knighton Wood appears to be across open ground, but we were actually in pretty woodland here, and what had been a track (as shown) became more of a footpath.

We reached the point at which Knighton Wood is shown on the map, and turned right onto another delightful path, through the woodland. It's described as a Roman Road on the map, but it wasn't so straight as to be boring. After about a mile we crossed a minor road (actually the road from Martin Drove End to Broad Chalke) and we realised that there's a little car park (or at least, an area where you could definitely park a car) at Vitrell Gate (SU046215). We were making very good time, and the weather was still fine, so we contacted Helen to suggest meeting around 12.30 in the Martin Down car park. 

Very shortly afterwards, after realising that we didn't want what looked like the straight ahead path from the car park but rather one that initially headed left before bending round to resume the required route, we encountered a sign telling us that the path ahead was closed. Bother! This was as a result of Ash die back; I'm not entirely sure whether the closure was to allow for clearance operations or just because they're worried about dead wood falling on people's heads. Whatever;  on the basis that we didn't really have much choice, that there were unlikely to be forestry operations on a Saturday, that other people had clearly been this way, and that we were prepared to take the risk, we kept going. Definitely the right decision; it remained most enjoyable walking.  We eventually emerged from the woodland and continued in the same direction across the open heathland of Martin Down, with the continuation of the wood to our right. 

We reached a the track leading to the A354, with the car park over the other side. From the distance, we could see a red car parked; could Helen really have got there ahead of us?! She hadn't, but she and Bertie arrived soon afterwards, Tom having kindly stayed at home so there would be room for both Richard and me in their car at the same time, which would have been significant if it had turned wet. We decided that the best place for a picnic would be back across the road on the open heathland mentioned above, so we walked back, Bertie telling me about his morning en route. After an enjoyable picnic, Bertie set off on an "adventure" which seemed to involve him running off in front of the adults, all of us pretending to be animals. Great fun was had by all!