Ridgeway Day 0 - Avebury circular walk - 7 miles

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Published: Apr 5, 2024 by

Walking the ridgeway national trail

Read all about my adventures walking the ridgeway in April 2024

The western end of the ridgeway starts near to Avebury stone circle and Silbury Hill so we decided to do a warm up walk, starting at Avebury and taking in the sights near by.

The official start of the ridgeway is at Overton Hill, but there is not much there apart from a small car park.

The Trailblazer guide book had a walk that headed south along the West Kennet Avenue, to Silbury Hill, then through West and East Kennet, before heading north along the ridgeway for a bit, then turning back towards Avebury.

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For some reason, we ended up doing this walk in the opposite direction than described in the book. I think we didn’t want to walk the same bit of the ridgeway in the same direction twice. Anyway, it was a lovely walk which ended up being about 7 miles long, but there were a lot of large puddles on some of the tracks and fields between East Kennet and Silbury Hill.

I proved that my boots were very waterproof, but unfortunately this was not the case for all of us. Not the best start to a week of walking, but looking back it was quite a lot of fun working out ways to avoid the hazards.

We finished the walk at the Red Lion in Avebury for a refreshment, then headed to the Postern Hill campsite.

OS Maps iPhone and Apple Watch app review

I was looking online for ways of having some kind of route displayed on my Apple Watch as I was walking. The built in workouts app allows you to track a lot of information, such as distance, elevation, heart rate, etc. but it doesn’t show you a map of where you have been, are, or are heading to. I noticed that the OS Maps app has an Apple Watch app, so I thought I would give that a go and see what it does.

Cotswold Way, Broadway to Winchcombe - with a steam train too

We were looking at the National trails website and saw the Cotswold Way wasn’t too far away from Brackley. We decided to walk a section but wanted a way of parking at the end of the section and some way of getting to the start. After looking at our map, we discovered the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR).

What I have learned about walking boots

I have done a few long walks, but I would still call myself a novice when it comes to hiking. I’m still learning about different equipment and what works for me, but I want to share what I have learned so far about walking boots to try and help other beginners who are getting into walking and hiking.