A RAMBLE THROUGH HELMAND PROVINCE

by Hattie Ellis (Salisbury)

Soldiers recreate war zones up on Salisbury Plain. Away yet here, on land once grazed and wandered, they learn to fight in Helmand Province and the alleyways and deserts of Basra amongst the Wiltshire wildlife.

Citizens cross the frontline twice a year. Former dwellers of the evacuated village of Imber tend ancestral graves on a single ceremonial day. Then in May, ramblers and marathon runners span the Plain for 26 miles on the Sarsen Trail.

They start at 6.30am on Pewsey Down, go past lynchets where corn once lined the contours. Up and up, towards the sky. Near the end comes The Bustard, both squaddy pub and a bird of prey that swoops here once again, like feathered planes without bombs.

To keep clear of shrapnel, the walkers stick to gravel running between cowslips and skylarks. This land of the departed asks many questions. You start with the practical, as if in a foreign land: are the pigs on the Plain now deaf to the shelling?

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What Hattie Ellis says about A RAMBLE THROUGH HELMAND PROVINCE:

The Army has a big presence in Salisbury, both seen in the streets and unseen on Salisbury Plain. This comes from stories I was told about this mysterious place.