My first two day stint, and entirely alone, although it turns out I met up with quite a few along the way and everyone prepared to pass the time of day: dog walkers, cyclists, joggers, and of course Ridgeway travellers – although less of them than I imagined.
The official Ridgeway trail goes up and over a few hills, with a number of barrows beside the route. Whereas to the south east there is a higher ridge of the Chilterns, and I would have thought that was a more likely route (and no sign of Grim’s Ditch along here).
It got increasingly hot, into the high 20s and I wished I’d worn shorts. Then after Lodge Hill and The Cop, the route takes a long straight line through lower country, passing the huge chalk pits at Chinnor. These are very much verboten and said to be lethal, but I was able to get a glimpse of the unnatural alkali blue lakes.
The long south westerly line of the official national trail seemed a little unexciting and I decided to take a side route up the scarp of Bald Hill. Starting to regret the climb, I found amazing views to the north at the top, then continued down through woods where there was the most amazing cloud of butterflies – I’ve never seen so many. For the write up I’ll keep this as a (strenuous) alternative, but show the official route.
Watlington, ‘England’s smallest market town’ was very cute with a very grand 18th C market hall, but the accommodation was spartan and tired. They were anxious for me to leave early and although I said I’d be happy with a breakfast at 7:30 it was already waiting for me under the hotplate when I came down and the plate was snatched away as soon as I’d finished. They asked me to review it and, as I said to my friend Gail, I did them a favour by not reviewing it: ‘adequate’ at best, but the only option here and maybe therefore not the best place to suggest as an overnight.
