We set off into a sunny day with lovely weather. First we walked east of town and hit a shady footpath that took us gradually uphill, sort of sideways along, until we hit the top and the Ridgeway. After that it was pretty easy going for a long time; the tracks were fairly level and often shady, though they were also often deeply rutted into wagon tracks or something like that, which could be hard on the ankles. We saw quite a few people, who were usually out getting some exercise. (I am truly astonished by the number of people we met running along these tracks full of sharp stones, trippy roots, and viciously narrow ruts.) We were taking a rest on a log -- which turned out to be about 20 feet away from an actual bench -- when a fellow came by and asked us a question about the trail. We got to chatting and had a pleasant conversation with him, and then he went on at a jauntier pace than we could manage.
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| Made it up to the actual Ridgeway... |
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| The view from the trail! |
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| Horses across a vale |
We hiked as far as Liddington Castle, another double-walled hillfort, but this one was a ways off the path and we just looked at it from afar, then turned down a long slope. At the end of that slope was a road, and we decided to stop for lunch in a grassy spot to the side before we got to the road (a wise decision). The grassy spot turned out to be next to a grassy field full of poppies and daisies, so that was nice. As we were finishing, the same fellow came along, hailed us, and promptly slid and fell. I ran down to see if he was okay and he was, and came up to join us and have a rest. As we were chatting, some people came along with a bag of bark and a weed-eater; they were going to work on a little memorial garden in a glade of trees nearby. So he went off to have a look while we finished up. Then we started off, and as before he outpaced us immediately. We met lots of other walkers too, of course; in fact one Scottish couple we met more than once, though they were moving faster than we were and finished before us.
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| Liddington Castle across a pea field |
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| Our lunch spot! |
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| Looking at the road ahead, much of which is actual road |
At the bottom of the hill we had to walk along a busy road for a bit, and then turn and walk along a less busy road. This was no fun at all. We had to walk in a narrow line through tall grass and weeds, thinking about ticks the whole time. The road passed over the M4, ugh, and we walked on a narrow asphalt track along the side of the overpass. Just at the end, Teresa tripped or something and fell, hurting her ankle. We had to keep going, but luckily the village of Foxhill -- the only village on the route -- was quite close. Foxhill consists of a large Indian restaurant and a few houses. We sat outside the restaurant, at a picnic table near the road. They were very nice to us and called us a taxi.
The taxi guy saved us 3 or 4 miles of walking and took us to Ashbury, where we sat in a cozy spot in the inn/pub and iced Teresa's ankle. The rest of us walked to the tiny village shop/bakery, and then Kim realized she couldn't find her phone. We think it must have been left in the taxi, though I can't see how since I saw the backseat after everyone was out. But we looked everywhere else. So we put a call in to the taxi company and hoped to hear back. It took a few days, but eventually we had to give up hope, and Kim was phoneless for the rest of the trip.
We took a stroll around the village and had a nice dinner. Teresa, unfortunately, was unable to continue walking; an awful shame since the next day was the Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy. We hoped that she would recover in a day or so, but it was a real sprain...
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| It's a little free library! |
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