April 23rd
Day 17, 23 April (London - Sutton Veny- Salisbury Plains
Julie Reece
Today we left London for the Salisbury Plains to places near and dear to me; the tiny villages of Sutton Veny, Codford and Stockton. These picture postcard places were the places where many Australian and other Commonwealth troops began their wartime experience. During the war army training camps, facilities and hospitals virtually popped up overnight and here men and women would start their European journey and for some sadly end it . So as we walked through the villages my great uncles would march in and train prior to going over to the hell of the trenches on the western front, we were truly walking in their footsteps. Armed with the postcards and photos from 1916 featured in the book 'Jimmy's Anzac Pilgrimage' we compared the streetscapes of these quaint villages with the photos from an era long gone. The regimantal badges carved into the chalk hills near Fovant are physical testimony of the men of the Great War having dominated this region...eeerie...
Sam Crow
On the drive to Salisbury the Fovant badges were a magnificent sight to see. Also while we didn't to go up to it, there were many photos taken of Stonehenge.