It was the beer!

It wasn’t my fault.  After a large can of Aldi Galahad lager I needed an evening walk in an effort to avoid falling asleep in my recliner chair.

With good intentions, I left for a short walk back down the towpath retracing todays cruising route but at the first bridge I was distracted by the constant moorers.  It doesn’t take a boater long to know that wherever there is a rural bridge with public access for vehicles you find boats.

There are certainly plenty of them on this canal.  It then doesn’t take much effort to find the vehicles

I don’t particularly object to this provided they moor in a continuous line.  It’s the gaps and boat engine throttle stop-start that annoys me!  However this is where the second issue occurred.  I turned away from the canal and started walking north along the road to view the thatched cottages in the nearby small hamlet.  I suspect thatchers have their own signature/symbol.

On the far side of the hamlet I could see the White Horse on the face of Milk Hill.  That one beer resulted in a decision to get a closer look.

It didn’t look that far and I had taken the gps with me (hence the poor quality photos from the measly 3Mp inbuilt camera).  The route was rather circular (that beer again) but eventually I came across the “White Horse Trail” which led me to a position immediately above the horse.

As you can see the edges of the figure have a timber kerbing.  I assume this minimizes the growth of the surrounding grass onto the figure.

 The eye

There are some good views from Milk Hill.  Off to the west is Devizes.

Whilst looking to the south I could see Waiouru moored outside the pub at Honey Street.

You probably can’t see Waiouru in the above photo and to tell you the truth, neither could I.  But I could see the pub.  Interestingly, that wasn’t the only thing I noticed.  There was a crop circle in the field opposite the pub on the other side of the canal.  The gps camera only has a digital zoom function so the photo of the circle is blurred.

Now we know why the pub camping ground is so popular.  They are all looking for crop circles.  Mind you, one of the locals was overheard proclaiming to the others in his drinking circle “I made that one in 1998!”  Perhaps these crop circles aren’t that mysterious?

I made it back the Waiouru at 9pm thinking Jan might have been worried by my prolonged absence.  however she didn’t seem to be too concerned. 15,000 paces put on the Fitbit.  I’m ahead of the weekly target.

White horse at the top and mooring at the bottom.