I've given Peter a new title after today's tour - "Henry the Navigator" (Henry is Peter's middle name) - with a few hours of effort last night we greatly modified our route to include Salisbury Cathedral, which was not on the Iron Donkey tour route. Having no cue sheets or detailed maps, we Googled and zoomed, and Peter sketched maps by hand until we were convinced we could wander off on our own and still make it to Stonehenge and our B & B in reasonable time.

And the day was a total success. The terrain was relatively flat and the scenery very bucolic - I even tried to make peace with a local pig named Ginger; she's been quite worried that her reputation has been ruined by the H1N1 virus. Peter chatted with a local thatcher and later on that day took a great photo of roof thatching in progress.

Consoling Ginger re/swine flu

The art of Thatching

Salisbury Cathedral was just as wonderful as I remember from my first and only visit in 1980. Seeing one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta (housed in the cathedral's Chapter House) was so moving. I love the setting of the cathedral; like Wells it has a wonderful surrounding green. The scale of it is magnificent!

June is dwarfed by Salisbury Cathdral's grandeur

We left the cathedral at about 2:30 and arrived at our B & B at about 3:30 PM. Leaving our heavy packs, we rode west to Stonehenge. This was also my second visit to the site but the first where we only could view it from a circular grass path around its perimeter - too many visitors had defaced the stones to allow continued touching access. But the Audio Tour was great and we learned a great deal about the site and its mysterious history. Peter had a great Zen moment I captured for posterity.

The force is with Peter at Stonehenge

Then it was back to home base after a 34 mile day, at the lovely Mandalay B & B in Amesbury. Cleaned up, dined at a pub, watched some England vs. Croatia World Cup soccer, and then did some reading/blogging. Time for some sleep to prepare for Devizes!