Ridgeway Trip XIII: So Much Sun -- and Victory!

We had a nice breakfast at the pub, featuring fresh fruit!  The guy's face when I told him none of us drink coffee or tea but we'd like a jug of water, though, that was pretty funny.  I'll admit it's odd to drink cold water at breakfast, but I can only drink so much orange juice, and then I'm still thirsty.

We set off on the footpath to the Ridgeway, which starts in a cowfield.  The cows were just enjoying the shade and were right by us -- very beautiful cows too!  After that the path is mostly in a narrow overgrown lane between hedges for a good half-mile.  There were lots of bugs enjoying the morning sunshine!  We were glad to get into a shadier area, which went on for a mile or two, mostly uphill but not too bad.  We were going through the Aldbury Nowers, an area that butterflies just love and which has been turned into a preserve.  Apparently 30ish species live there, and there are only 59 identified in England.  So we looked at the butterflies happily flitting around, and kept going.  We were always hoping to find a Chalkhill Blue, but people told us that there weren't many this year.  At one point we had a hard time identifying which path we should take -- the sign seemed to point halfway between two -- but the book helped.  

Eventually we came out onto sunny green hill, with a chalk track beaten into the grass.  It was so warm and sunny -- the sky was downright Californian, without a cloud -- and about 80% humidity, and sometimes I found it difficult to get enough air.  I don't do well in humidity!  But we persevered over about five hills, which took a long time.  We got to a signpost that said just one mile more, and that was still three hills.  

The water is a disused chalk pit filled with water; 
good for swimming and very blue from the chalk

So close!!

Finally we ascended the Beacon, which was really very steep, and there we were -- at the end of 87 miles of ancient trackway.  There is a small stone podium thing with a map on top, and nearby an Ordnance Survey trig point, and that's all, except for the spectacular view over the Vale.  It was something like 250 degrees, just enormous.  

Several hills still to go

The final ascent!

We took photos, and chatted with a few other people who arrived.  A very nice lady pointed out the White Lion on the hills far away, which marks the location of Whipsnade Zoo, and a massive estate, and told us she'd been married in the St Albans Cathedral that we were going to see the next day.  She and her friend were not thrilled about us going to London when there's so much lovely countryside to see.  I sympathized; I feel the same way about San Francisco.  

See the lion?  He's a little overgrown

Then we were mostly alone, so we sat down on a nice bit of grass to enjoy our accomplishment and try to catch any breezes that were going.  We celebrated with soda and Jaffa cakes from the village shop, both kind of too warm.  After a while we moved to a different spot for a different view, and watched gliders, kites, and ravens all enjoy flying around in what must have been a perfect day for updrafts.  After a while the flies got to be too much and we decided to get going.

A few ravens showed up

That two miles of sunny hill were pretty hard going on the way back.  It was hotter, there were a few clouds but it was still very sunny, and we were more tired.  We were extremely grateful to get back into the wooded path, and looked for the bench we'd seen earlier.  It was not a comfortable bench, but it was sure nice to sit down.  Lunch was very warm indeed, but I got an apple!  It was too hot to enjoy anything but fruit.  But it wasn't too much farther, and soon we were bidding goodbye to the Ridgeway and going on our overgrown footpath back to Aldbury.  

A final goodbye to the Ridgeway as we leave the track

We met Teresa at the church and went in to cool down for a few minutes, and then celebratory ice cream was in order.  We each got a Magnum bar at the village shop and sat down on a lovely bench built around a tree, and watched the parents arrive to pick up their children from school; we'd watched them drop the kids off as we left in the morning.

After that we just went back to our rooms and tried to cool off, a fairly impossible job.  After dinner, most of us walked around the village and discovered that the old stocks and whipping post is still there next to the duck pond.  Somehow we had managed to miss that, even while sitting on a bench and looking directly at the duck pond.  The weather stayed hot, and even at 9:30 in the evening it was still stifling.  But we got all packed up and ready for St Albans in the morning.

Stocks and post, with view of our ice cream bench directly across the way

It's RIGHT THERE,  I don't know how I missed it