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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
- Walking the Ridgeway
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Ridgeway Day 0 - Avebury circular walk - 7 miles
- Ridgeway day 1 - Overton Hill to Liddington - 15.5 miles
- Ridgeway day 2 - Foxhill to Court Hill Centre, near Wantage - 12 miles
- Ridgeway day 3 - Court Hill Centre, near Wantage to near Streatley - 12 miles
- Ridgeway day 4 - Wallingford to near Watlington - 10 miles
- Ridgeway day 5 - Near Watlington to Princess Risborough - 12.5 miles
- Ridgeway day 6 - Whiteleaf Hill, near Princess Risborough to Hill Farm camp site - 10 miles
- Ridgeway day 7 - Wendover woods to Ivinghoe Beacon - 9 miles
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.
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.
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Ridgeway day 7 - Wendover woods to Ivinghoe Beacon - 9 miles
Wow, we were almost there! One last day of walking to reach Ivinghoe Beacon and the sun had come out too!
Ridgeway day 6 - Whiteleaf Hill, near Princess Risborough to Hill Farm camp site - 10 miles
Despite the windy conditions I slept very well that night, obviously needing the rest, and woke up feeling much better. My brother-in-law offered me his spare pair of walking shoes. I looked at my own boots and shuddered at the thought of putting them back on again and said yes to the loaned shoes. They were so much more comfortable straight away.
Ridgeway day 5 - Near Watlington to Princess Risborough - 12.5 miles
Watlington was quite a charming little village the first time we drove through it, but after driving back and forth doing the car shuffle we realised it would probably be better if there was a bypass of some sort. The streets were very narrow and couldn’t really cope with the large 4x4’s driving through it.