Wiltshire & Somerset | TRAVEL
Little blue, red and white labels often spotted stuck on lampposts and the backs of road signs have become a familiar sight all over the country in recent years. They've been put there by the National Cycle Network (NCN) organisation. It's thanks to these that I enjoyed several pleasant days of cycling on Wiltshire's lanes to see close up something of a county I previously knew little of.
I had no need to move the motorhome as I joined NCN's route 24 virtually right from Longleat campsite's entrance at which I had arrived the evening before.
Leaving the exotic roars of Longleat's safari park's inmates behind, I headed up hill and down dale firstly to the pleasant market town of Frome. Then, following the NCN's signs through an edge-of-town shopping centre, I reached a disused railway line to take me northwest.
Though the line closed in 1959, the track itself is still in place beneath the brambles and the nettles. Perhaps as a result of nature's return, on that sunny summer morning, I was accompanied by butterflies and birdsong. Beyond the brambles and hedgerows lay the rich fields and woodlands of a rural England in all its glory.
Despite the bucolic scenery, it's named the Colliers Way, for much coal was dug here and mining only ended in 1973. I think, however, another name might
