Into the Countryside

It was a bit of a stressful beginning to our day of adventure. We had to take two trains to get out of London and had to exit the station and buy a new ticket at the transfer point, run back in and hop on a new train with about 15 seconds to spare. By some miracle, we made it and were then evidently the only people to have ever rented a car from Hertz in Guildford, England. The rental office was even smaller than I expected and our car was parked in the regular parking lot for the train station. Perhaps it is the only vehicle Hertz had on property. It is a Vauxhall Astra and I will tell you that shifting in and out of 3rd gear is not very smooth.

After some challenges with navigating near Salisbury, we eventually found our way to Stourton in hopes of viewing some gardens there. Our reason for the stop is that they were used in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice as you see in this screenshot here. While it wasn't raining like it was in the movie, the wind gusts were easily over 30mph and when we arrived at the Visitor's Center, we discovered that they were closed for the day due to wind. I guess they are concerned about falling trees and such.

Nicole inquired with a man at the desk and he said that all roads going around the area are public access, so whatever we decided to do was fine by him. We couldn't walk on the paths, but we could at least see the main areas. Basically we saved ourselves 17 pounds per person and saw what we wanted to see. Fine by me. Nicole later read that it's extremely rare for the gardens to shut down due to wind. Oh well. Such is life. From there we continued down the road to another filming location -- this time from 2015's Far from the Madding Crowd.

The town of Sherborne in Dorset doubles as the main village from the movie. It is where all major commerce takes place in the film whether it be recruitment for the Army, gambling over boxers, or observing bears . . . luckily not boxing bears, it all took place in the main square near Sherborne Abbey. They covered the driveway with a bit of dirt, but that's about the only change they needed to do.

Most of these towns in this part of England are stuck in a different era. We are a long way from London. While it may be just over 100 miles or so, the cultural differences are vast. Nicole recalled seeing a toy store in Sherbourne that looked like it had not changed since the 1970s. People were driving massive trucks at blistering speeds on these narrow country roads that could barely fit one car, much less oncoming traffic. It was a harrowing experience, but despite driving a manual on the wrong side of the road, we emerged unscathed, and I was only honked at once when I stalled out at a traffic signal.

It had been a stressful day of driving yet we were rewarded with some beautiful views of the countryside. As we got closer to the finish line near the town of Dorchester, I was on the Vauxhall Express, first stop Pub. Pint, please. Maybe make it two.