15/03/14 - I Started Something

Distance - 7 Miles
Geocaches - 4
Walk Inspiration
Ridgeway Start - Overton Hill
Ridgeway End - Overton Downs
Distance on Ridgeway - 1.67 Miles

 The long weekend that keeps on giving continues.  We can blame Baldrick for this one.  On Tony Robinson's "Walking Through History", he had a programme on Avebury, Silbury Hill and the Ridgeway and I thought that would make a good adventure.

Can I turn the length of the Ridgeway into a series of day walks?  I will have a go.

The first leg is easy.  www.walkingworld.com provides the inspiration and we head off to Avebury.  This is a village inside of a stone circle.  The road takes you straight through the middle and on arrival, Sonia asks "Now we have seen it, can we go to the pub?".

It is a pretty pub but there is more to explore.

Park up at the National Trust car park and over the road onto a good path along the stream.  Silbury Hill, straight ahead.

Mappiman knows how to treat a lady

Quite how a lady cannot get excited at the largest man made mound in Europe, I do not know.

There is a cache at a little bridge.  Mrs Mappiman obviously needs more excitement, so I send her over to retrieve.  This cheers her up no end.

Happy now she has made a find

The next place of interest soon comes into view.  A visit to Kennet Long Barrow, a Neolithic burial chamber, high on a chalk ridge.

I explore where the 36 bodies were found

Sonia sits on top

We retrace our steps down the hill and get the walk going.  There are a couple of Geocaches to find but nothing to distract us until we come to East Kennet village and admire the thatched cottages and church.

Pity about the scaffolding

Next thing is the Ridgeway itself.  On approach, we see a van and a number of people hanging around.  We hope against hope that it is a tea van but no joy.  Simply new age gentlemen of the road.

Record the start of this new adventure in the only way we know how.

Ridgeway this way

Sonia described it as a "dead straight cow track"  It is the first road in Britain

We follow this path for a mile and a half, stopping for lunch on a boulder big enough for two.

It then a path called Green Street which takes us back to Avebury.

Turn Back To Avebury

We can see the size of the Stone Circle on approach.

Avebury Stone Circle

With a Geocacher

I am genuinely saddened that the walk is over. With the weather and the history we did not seem to be out long enough.

However, I soon got over it.