Back on the horse

In April our father, a former test pilot in the RAF, passed away very unexpectedly. We’d been talking about long distance trails and so my sister and I decided to do one he’d recommended – the White Horse Trail in Wiltshire – in his memory, in 11 separate walks for a total of 100 miles.

The only time we went drastically wrong was coming away from the Lansdowne Monument where we took the wrong direction, still following White Horse Trail waymarkers. We turned a 12.2 section into 18.6 miles!

We explored henges and barrows, saw orchids and horse racing gallops, memorials and deserted RAF stations. We saw seasons change with crops ripening and fields of buttercups becoming fields of daisies. We enjoyed sunshine as well as getting very wet! We laughed, chatted, made plans and memories. We walked with family, friends and assorted dogs. The landscapes were varied, from the chalk downs to the canal and Salisbury Plain. This walk was a healing time and will be forever in our memories.

Judith Read, email