Ridgeway walk

I ticked off another 'bucket list' item walking part of the Ridgeway - an ancient pathway over the chalk hills starting near Avesbury and ending 87 miles later! It's a popular long distance walk, but I was doing just a short stretch which is mentioned in one of my Sleep stories on thew calm App.

I hired a car for 2 days so I could get around the Cotswolds, and down to the Ridgeway.

The car is very new - has all the beeping safety systems. It proved useful as the speed limit changed constantly anywhere from 20mph to 60mph. All the little villages are 20mph. Even when it is 60, the roads are narrow, with hedgerows, and I rarely drove above 45mph. Fortunately most drivers are content to travel at that speed.

The first section along the Ridgeway, being quite flat, was very popular with dog walkers. There was farmland on both sides, and a lovely beech forest on one side for part of the way (I came back along a path through it).





A short distance along is an ancient burial mound called Wayland's Smithy https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/waylands-smithy/

It was supposed to be the home of Wayland the Saxon God of Smithing, and if you left a knife and a coin, you would return to find it sharpened.

It is surrounded by ancient beech trees and is very atmospheric. There are signs asking poeple to not mark the trees, and it was very pleasing to see that there was no evidence of graffiti. I wish the same happened near us.



The path climb up a hill and a path to the left takes you to a point above Uffington White Horse.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

Ironically, you can barely see it from the top. I walked all the way down to Dragon's Mound, thinking I might get a better view - not really - then all the way back up and found the 'best' view was about 20 metres from where I started!  The best view is on the Wiki site.




From Dragon's Mound







From the side at the top







There is also the the mound which is remains of an old for right on the top of the hill.


As I came back through the little glade, there were some trees with sticks piled up. Perhaps walkers having finished the section? Something else? Anyway I added one of my own.






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