My account of the Ridgeway Walk
By Peter Chatfield
I first decided to do this walk when I returned home from my Coast to Coast walk last year. I had read so much about the Ridgeway I decided to give it a go. Although it has to be said that I was not looking forward to a flattish walk..
I soon made plans, studied maps,
worked out distances and arranged my Bed and Breakfast stops. My plan
was not to walk so many miles in the day that I could not enjoy the
walk, it worked out on average that I would walk about 12 miles a day
I considered this would be a comfortable distance.
It was just before the walk was due to start that my friend Lawrence decided he would like to join me. It was now a case of him changing all the arrangements for the accommodation that I had previously set up. This was done in plenty of time so we were ready.
Saturday 10 July 1999 Overton to Ogbourne St George 9 Miles
We at last were off on the walk, it was a lovely day, sunshine with just a little breeze to cool us down. We made good progress up and over Overton Hill but at times it was a little hard going as the ruts in the path were quite deep in places, you also had to be aware of the cyclists and motor cyclists that use the path, and there were plenty of them on the day we started.
We continued on until
we came to a minor road which we crossed and went into a small car park,
from here you could see RAF Wroughton in the distance. Just beyond the
car park was a small wooded area, which was an ideal place to stop and
eat our lunch, we found a log to sit on from which we had a good view
of the surrounding countryside. Suitably replete we went on our way
making good progress over the Marlborough Downs, when we started going
down we saw in the distance the site of Barbary Castle which is a favourite
beauty spot. It wasn't before time that we reached Barbary Castle as
we were both feeling a little on the tired side. We found
the Wardens Bungalow which also
serves as a snack bar, we had ourselves a large mug of drink ( Tea for
Lawrence and Coffee for myself). A good rest stop, there were also facilities
for the cyclist and horse rider, plus the toilet facilities were not
too bad.
Onwards then to-wards Ogborne St George, following a rather nice stretch of grass path was sheer heaven after the first part. We eventually made it to Ogborne, asked our way to our B & B which was just around the corner.
The accommodation was not exactly what we expected, a bit on the sparse side, but never mind at least we had somewhere to sleep.
After a good shower we made tracks for the pub 'The Crown Inn'. We sampled a couple of pints then had a very nice meal. On leaving we were confronted by two ladies at the next table who said they knew who we were, this was a surprise to us as we had never seen them before in our lives, however what had happened, they had arrived to start their walk just after we had left and they got talking to our wives ( we were to meet them again!).
Back to the digs for a good nights rest in preparation for the next day.
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