I’ve been very lucky or, as I prefer to think, very skilful with my wild camping spots — I have yet to be discovered on any of my bivvying nights.

Unmolested by get-off-my-land farmers or Iron Age ghosts (I slept next to two tumuli) I rolled downhill at dawn to the ancient crossroads called the Dorsetshire gap.

I shot video and will post an edit in due course.

Why film my time on the Dorsetshire gap? Because of a box.

A plastic box, with a rock holding down the lid. As I was cycling on a cut-up bridleway I thought the box might contain horse treats or other equestrian paraphenalia. Nope. It contained several note books, annotated with the thoughts of those inquisitive enough to open a box at an ancient crossroads (as claimed by Victorian and earlier antiquarians).

I never add lines to visitor’s books in churches or similar but I added my thoughts to this outdoor one. I’ll do a longer posting on the Dorsetshire gap when I also post the video.

More finials were spotted today, including a thatched roof with a squirrel, but a thatch one this time.

Unlike Maiden Castle, where the bridleway stays low, the bridleway on the Iron Age fort (and Neolithic camp) of Hambledon Hill traverses half of the ancient monument at quite a high level. I flew the drone, again making sure I was well outside of the SSSI zone.

In Shaftesbury I rode straight up the bumpy setts on Gold Hill and was clapped at the top by those sitting outside a cafe and who clearly knew their 1970s TV advertisements.

“Fair play to you,” a cyclist on a road bike, sitting at the cafe with a mate, said as I summited.

They were impressed I got up with fully laden pannier bags. One of the cyclists had previously tried to get up the hill on a road bike, but had failed. It helps to have 50mm tyres …