So this is a travel blog. Except it’s only really about one place. And that place happens to be my home. A travel blog…  about home. But here I should confess that I lack the resources, and indeed the opportunity, to be criss-crossing the globe simply to come up with fresh blogging material, so I’m forced instead to rely on what happens to be nearby. And that just so happens not to include any beaches, jungles, deserts or really anything exotic at all. So here I am, not perusing the shelves at Harrods for whatever takes my fancy but rummaging around in the kitchen cupboard to see what I can find, then dusting it off and serving it up to whoever happens to curious about what goes on in this particular corner of the English countryside.

The home I’m talking about is the small, and largely ignored, county of Wiltshire. It’s one of those places that is pretty much left to go about its business as the rest of the world rushes around in a flurry of importance, unnoticing and mostly unrecognising us. Among the majority of outsiders the name rings a bell but it can’t be placed it on a map, while others have never even heard of it at all. There is no coast line which draws in caravans filled with holidaying families and no major cities which provide economic or sporting glory (sorry Swindon, but… well, y’know). We do proudly boast Stonehenge, a global icon right up there with the Sydney Opera House or the Taj Mahal, but even then the majority of visitors just think they’re in a field somewhere off the A303 and are completely oblivious to being in an actual county called Wiltshire. Regionally we’re a bit of an orphan with no real family; we’re not on the South Coast, we’re certainly not in the Midlands and anyone from Somerset will fiercely deny that we’re in the West Country (we are though, don’t listen to them). We’re just sort of south-ish and west-ish, visited mostly by people who simply happen to be driving along the M4.

But… all this is precisely what makes its magic. Wiltshire is entirely its own county, with no pretensions or particular aspirations to be something it isn’t. It has natural beauty that still excites even after a lifetime of seeing it, a landscape of endless greens and golds that inspired the work of Hardy, Golding and even Dickens. Even the bits the Army are intent on blowing the crap out of are pretty great. It has a warm and friendly population that heartily welcomes outsiders, but will still not consider them to be ‘local’ even 20 years after they move here (I’m slightly suspicious that some don’t acknowledge me as a true local because, even though I was born here, my parents were not).

But now isn’t the time to be trying to convince you about the good bits, that occurs over the coming months and blog posts. Now is about the bottom line, leaping beyond the persuasion and ahead to the final conclusion; namely, that when the stars align correctly and everything falls into position, this is one of the most amazing places on earth. Sure, I’m biased. Like Heathcliff and his moors, large parts of who I am are inextricably tied up in these fields and trees. And, no matter how long I spend elsewhere and how comfortable I get there, nowhere settles the soul with that feeling of ‘home’ quite like here. I understand that these things are not universal characteristics of the county and they cannot be bottled or replicated for visitors, but that doesn’t mean the joys that give rise to them can’t be shared to some extent. And that’s what this blog is about, the things that make Wiltshire great. It’s a chance for me to explore my county and discover things I didn’t even know existed, and hopefully it’s a chance for the wider world to see what they’re missing out on.

I know what you’re saying at this point. ‘Look at this closeted little village dweller, he’s probably never seen anything different so of course he thinks Wiltshire’s great!’ To set your mind at ease on that front, I’ll let slip that I’ve lived in London, I’ve lived in Southampton (hardly a ringing endorsement of my worldliness, I admit) and I’ve lived overseas. I’ve visited the cities of Europe; the bush of Africa and the jungles of Asia. I’ve swum beneath waterfalls on South Pacific islands; surrounded myself in the glitz of the USA and kicked back with a rum on the beaches of the Caribbean. Indeed it is these points of comparison that make me appreciate my surroundings even more, because when the sky is blue and the trees are green, there’s nowhere on earth I’d rather be than my home in good old Wiltshire. This blog is my attempt at explaining why.

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