06/06/15 - Head back when you hit the M40

Stage 11 of the Ridgeway
Distance - 8 Miles
Distance on Ridgeway - 3.3 Miles
Start - Watlington
Finish - Where the Ridgeway meets the M40
Geocaches - 4

A change of plan for Stage 11 of the Ridgeway.  Having knocked off 15 miles in my first linear walk on this Long Distance Path, I originally intended to continue onwards to Princes Risborough on another 9 mile linear walk.  Sonia could have taken a leisurely lie in at the Fat Fox Pub and let her sausages go down.

A plan in principle, but it seemed cruel to deny Sonia another walk on the path that she affectionately calls the "Old Cow Track".  And the Fat Fox has a 10am check out time.

Watlington is a recommended place to stop on the Ridgeway.  Interesting village that has an independent feel.  No chain coffee shops here.  There are three pubs.  The Fat Fox was where we stayed, in a lovely beamed barn conversion.  Sonia gauges the quality of a place by the towels and the biscuits.  100% Egyptian Cotton and Kitkats make for a happy woman.

It was also the place we chose to eat last night.  A five course French themed night could not be resisted, even if we couldn't work out if the Canapes were £5 for lot, for each diner or for each type of Canape.  It seemed tight to ask our theatrical waiter for advice.

After a fine meal we checked out the one of the other pubs, the Chequers Inn.  Best beer in town.  And the food looked none to shabby either.

After breakfasting with the same pair of ladies who avoided the Canape conundrum and went straight to Soup, we determine that they are fellow Ridgeway walkers.  I know this as they are protesting that £40 is too much for a taxi to take their bags to Wendover and they ask me (checking me out for the be-kitted rambler that I am) how much I am paying.  I explain my attempt at doing the Ridgeway as a series of day walks, which will take me a lot longer than them but without the need of paying high price carriage costs.

Onto the walking and we pick up the Ridgeway where I left it yesterday.  A terrible sight awaits us.  Scores of Duke of Edinburgh kids who are having the rules explained to them;

Leader - "If you miss the checkpoints today, you will be failed"
DoE'er - "What's a Checkpoint?"

As we leave them, no doubt the next question would have been "When do we get to lie around in a big group moaning?".

The Ridgeway holds no surprises, with the exception that there is only one geocache along this stretch.  I break up the monotony of the Cow Track by attempting to photo the magnificent Red Kites that swoop overhead.  Sonia tells me what I already know.... they will never come out well with that lens.

Nothing to report until we meet the M40, where I have chosen to be the turning point of Today's Walk.

The Ridgeway, going under the M40

Time to use this Footpath to leave the Ridgeway

I always assumed the Ridgeway crossed the M40 at the cutting a little further South.  There is a wonderful looking path that I gaze at lovingly as I flee the south after a day working in the Smoke which I will have to come back for another day.

Circumvent the M40 J6 exit roads and a field of evil horses and we are under the M40 walking towards Lewknor Village.  A little geocache series allows us to get some numbers.

It's a pretty place with a nice looking pub, which of course, we are too early for.

Remains Uninvestigated

The walking back to Watlington is fine, if not a little unspectacular.  Farmland and the Oxfordshire Way bring us past the Model Farm and through the pretty (no shops, no pub) hamlet of Pyrton.  Having seen the prices of three bedroom houses through the estate agents window last night, we play "Guess the Property Prices" of the mansions.  And why do Vicars needs such massive estates?

Oxfordshire Way - To Pyrton

In no time at all, we are back in Watlington.  You could have twisted my arm for a pint, but Sonia fancied cake.  Fine Italian lemonade and carrot cake hit the spot but do not making a satisfying photo to close down a blog.