So Mere, Yet so Far...

This is the absolute closest that I can get to the famous and wonderful Stourhead Estate and Gardens - shot with the equivalent of over 500mm lens (in FX terms) from 271m tall Whitesheet Hill, the escarpment that lies to the east. 

King Alfred's Tower looms above the Stately House, like some weird Tolkeinesque chimney!

I hadn't been to Mere since 2009 - it was one of the first walks I undertook after going digital with the (now mostly deceased) Nikon D700. 

Despite the gateway to west A303 running underneath the town, which of course runs to within a few miles north of Salisbury, it remains an absolute sod to get to by public transport.

Train to Gillingham (Dorset), for the first bus (of a total of 3 for the entire day) to Wincanton, which was late, of course. I had really counted on there being a return bus at 17.30, which would have made the day worthwhile and thus some six plus hours to do some serious hillwalking, including the strange lump that looms above Mere, 'Castle Hill, and which the views from, are quite remarkable.

But unlike the website (buses are run by a family run local coach company who have these little buses) the bus stop in Mere stated the last bus back was half past flipping two! Hardly time to unscrew a flask and take a few breaths and steps up onto the Mid west Wiltshire Downs!

So, of course, the short few hours I was up and out in and above and on the other side of that busy ribbon of tarmac, the A303, it coincided with a cold, dark and grey cloudy spell. Could have been great for dramatic weather pictures with spotlights lighting up the grand views, but these only really started to happen in the last hour, when I was forcibly having to hotfoot it back down to get that last miserable bus back...

I had to wait a good ten minutes for the sun to pick out Stourhead here - I hope you're happy!! LOL

But, Mere is an attractive little town, a lovely church and a clocktower (running ten minutes early), with rustic old tearooms, antique shops and inns, should you wish to slip off that 303 for an hour or so. I would have liked to have spent longer there but in the end, I am glad that I did and I know that had I not known about the lack of that much later bus, I wouldn't have bothered!

When the bus got back into Gillingham station, the sun was blazing and it was warm and it felt as if I'd only had a half day out (which was in fact the case), so I spent a further £6.10 on extending my train journey westwards to the lovely Sherborne and a most gorgeous, sun filled Abbey. Glorious. Wrong lenses (slow, wide-ranging and 120-400mm types, for landscapes) but I did get some lovely snaps inside, mostly with the 10-24mm, thus completing a satisfying and long day, getting back home about 8pm.