South West England - Phase 3 Nuffield underway

Day 5 in the UK!
Already I've done a few miles ( and they are miles here of course!).
I've had some adventures already too... Sadly some of them are the result of having left something behind.
One noteworthy adventure comprised driving a rental car from near Victoria Station in London, with just a small scale map, willingness to have ago and hope...

The GPS I should have had, as I had carefully already purchased a local sim card, with data, was back at the Farmer's Club, where I'd stayed my first night.
I found myself driving through the park surrounding Buckingham Palace ... where something as vulgar as road signs seemed to have been deemed unnecessary! Just as I was coming to the conclusion I'd have to stop & reexamine the map, or even ask directions, a chain store name caught my eye . I'd seen this before - though I may have done so anywhere. Looking around further I spotted a road sign I recognised. I knew how to get where I wanted to from there!
I got my phone back - but I'm sorry to say that already I have left something else behind... I'll say no more about that right now...

South West England is beautiful. Devon with steeper, more frequent hills and Cornwall softly rolling . Both prettily patchworked at present - golden harvest and green pastures - fields all defined by the characteristic hedges, little seen in N. Z.
The tight high-walled lanes pose a challenge to the uninitiated.

 I'm glad one of my hosts pointed out that despite the soft leafy appearance they are very unforgiving, generally with a rockwall base hiding behind the bushes. Never choose to swipe the hedge in the face of a tight squeeze... Politeness carries the day, with someone always willing to wait or pull into a wee hint of a layby. Its actually far higher adrenaline than my previous sentence conveys... but again, enough said!
Stock disease features high in farmers' conversations. TB is very topical, as many of you on Twitter may know. But the legacy of both BSE and Foot & Mouth still drive choices today.
I'm grateful N.Z. farmers haven't experienced such a scale of stock disease to date.

Interesting, in discussing my topic of farmers' responses to limits, I've noticed that the same "limit" can be described differently, depending on the person's perception of the impact of meeting that limit.

Gorse is a menace here too, if not controlled by burning and stock pressure

Good winter grazing coming up under skeletal gorse remains.

Heathered stage of the moorland cycle.

Tomorrow I head north ... and into Bonnie Scotland on Wednesday