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Published: Apr 8, 2024 by
Walking the ridgeway national trail
Read all about my adventures walking the ridgeway in April 2024
- Walking the Ridgeway
- 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
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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 wind had died down and the sun came out a bit. We started walking from the small car park near Court Hill Centre and headed along a farm track, before it turned to a wide grassy track. It was nice going, passing the Baron Wantage monument, with views of Wantage and then Scutchcambe Knob, an iron age round barrow.
After this, there was a long grass section which seemed to go on for a long time, before the noise from the A34 started. We took the path under the A34 and were surprised by the murals painted on the inside of the tunnel.
We passed more horse gallops before the path became more of a track. We could tell we were now changing from wilderness to more rural areas as we took the first sharp 90 degree turn to avoid farm fields, rather than gentle turns we had gotten used to.
We followed the track, stopping to take in what was once a field that now looked more like a lake. There was a sign for a footpath that went straight through the flooded field, but luckily the ridgeway carried on past it. The track was very chalky and quite rutted in places, glad that the sun was out as it could have gotten quite slippery in the wet.
We stopped for some food, sitting on a bank with a gap in the trees overlooking the countryside. I checked my feet and my right foot was fine, but my left foot had a couple of blisters appearing. One under my big left toe and a sore appearing on the top of the left toe. I put blister plasters on and wrapped some more zinc oxide tape over the top to secure them.
We had covered a fair distance and realised we didn’t have much more to go back to our car. We walked in good spirits back up the hill, before the path carried on downhill towards Streatley, taking in the views of Streatley Warren, a steep sided valley. As we got back into our car, we noticed that there was a road closure here the next day. This meant we needed to change our plans and find somewhere else to park and start our walk.
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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.