Well, what can I say about Swindon? Rain - but I guess I could say that about most places we've been so far. Traffic - that at least is a bit more unique to Swindon, specifically the Magic Roundabout. It's either one of the most elegant traffic control devices in modern memory, or it's the devils own handy work. What it is, is a collection of five roundabouts, arranged to form a single, larger roundabout. However, in practice the five roundabouts form more of a pentagram than a circle, hence why I suspect Beelzebub was involved in the early planning stages. I was originally looking forward to experiencing the unique feature, but despite several attempts to navigate it, I constantly ended up having to take a left exit, do a u-turn, then do another left exit just to go straight! I only managed to conquer the Magic Roundabout on the very last day, as we were leaving. It's all to do with lanes, apparently...

Sadly though, I think the word that summed up Swindon for me was dull. That may be a result of the rainy weather, and the fact that we actually spent most of our time out of Swindon itself, but I don't have much to say for Swindon. We had an underwhelming dining experience at The Savoy, a pub-type restaurant, steep prices for pretty basic food at the hotel restaurant, and unhelpful service at the information centre/library. So I will say nothing more about Swindon.

Wedid have a great time, for the most part, exploring Pewsey and the surrounding areas. This is where my grandfather, William Henry Smart (and his ancestors) came from. We explored some really old churches , going back to the 13th century, and found some gravestones which may be related to my family (distant cousins, rather than direct line). We also did a lot of walking around Wootton Rivers, including a hike to East Wick Farm, where my great great grandfather worked as a carter and Cowan, and where my great grandfather was born. We carried on from East Wick down to Wootton Rivers, and ducked into the Royal Oak tavern for lunch. This pub dates back to the 16th century, and is the only pub, I think, in Wootton Rivers, which means that this is the pub where my great great grandfather, and his son, would likely have drunk in! I did them proud, ordering a ham and chutney sandwich and a lemonade.

After our rapaste, we carried on with our hike. We intended to work on to West Wick farm, which another of my ancestors worked on, but our navigation failed us, so we trekked back to the car, about four miles, of which only one was not in rain... All up, though, our time inn and around Pewsey was great - steeped in history and community.

On our way back to Swindon, we drive through the Savernake Forest. it's probably not as well known as other forests like Epping, or the New Forest, but it is notable for being home to one of the oldest trees in the UK - Big Belly Oak, which is estimated to be over 1000 years old, and has been fitted with a "gastric band" to stop it growing outwards. It was a great and totally unexpected find on this part of the trip, properly off the beaten tourists trail...

So that pretty much sums up the Swindon leg of our trip. We leave for Swanage on the morn, where we will pass through Stonehenge and Old Sarum, on our way to the Jurassic coast!