Here's the road to the foot of the chalk hills, the country road that takes me from my home to the other place where I feel at home.
It's a long straight road, but bumpy enough to enforce a low speed. It's a country road for people with time to spare.
The road has an end where, in the middle of nowhere, one can stop and park. From there onward travel is on foot, by bicycle or on horseback.
Metaphorically the road end is like a first solo flight or stepping off a train onto a remote platform. It's about self-sufficiency. Here's the place where we leave civilisation behind and rely on our strength and skills.
From this point I am abroad within a strange ancient dry world that would once have tested survival skills.
I wonder how ancestors survived in a place so waterless. Forts, barrows and other earthworks show that they lived up here. Perhaps they carried water in skins from the distant valley to meet their needs? They must have been hardy!
This spring Brena and I are learning to travel together. We've made a number of trips out by trailer. I've regained former fluency and she has grown into a quiet confidence. We've reached the point where I am happy to take this beast - half a ton of her - on my own to remote places in order to ride. This is exciting, the first steps in a new partnership. It's great to travel with her not feeling at all on edge.
I've started to load Brena in her field too. Why walk her a quarter mile down to the parking area at the barn when I can drive up? It saves time and teaches her flexibility. As time passes she will need to load and unload in more and stranger places.
It is the dry weather hardening the ground that enables me to drive up there. On chalk we have eight months to appreciate bone dry ground and four months slipping around on greasy mud. Right now I am very happy thinking about a whole summer without mud.
The photo shows how arid this land can be. Grass is thin and not of the best quality. Combined with the calcium absorbed from the chalk these fields are ideal for horses. The road leads us well.
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