Ridgeway - Day 1 - Overton Hill to Ogbourne St George

Today I started my long held goal of walking the Ridgeway.

It felt silly going all the way to Avebury and not going around the World Heritage sites there, so I added an additional section, putting an extra 5 miles and two and a half hours onto the start of the walk.  Val walked with me for most of this extra bit - so I even appear in some of the photos !

Once on the Ridgeway, I did about 10 miles to Ogbourne St George where hopefully Val would be waiting for me with the car !

The ViewRanger recording of my route.

The places visited before the official Ridgeway start (we didn't go to Windmill Hill)

Click on any of the photos for a full screen view.

Me, at the start

Val at the start

Avebury

Walking up the Avenue (Pillars indicate where stones were)

A standing stone in the Avenue

Looking down the Avenue

Looking back up the Avenue

Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill from ground level

Silbury Hill Information Board

West Kennet Long Barrow

Information board on the Long Barrow

Me, in the entrance to the Long Barrow

Looking out of the long barrow

View from the top of the Long Barrow

Val at the entrance.  She went back to the car from this point.

Even though we're not on the Ridgeway yet, things are well signposted

Down here I think.

East Kennet village had some impossibly cute houses

East Kennet phonebox / lending library.

While archaeologically important, The Sanctuary is now just a set of marked out circle

The Sanctuary Information Board

At last !  The official start to the Ridgeway ...

... which is actually just a rubbish strewn car park.

Here's the full length of the Ridgeway

And here's the local bit of the Ridgeway.  I'm going as far as Ogbourne St George today.

The Ridgeway starts with a long (very long) slow climb north up a chalk road

A view over to a Tumulus - but nothing of Avebury or it's ancient monuments can be seen from the Ridgeway.

Less chalky, but more rutted

A field of Sarsen Stones - this is where they got them from !

Me and my Shadow, walking  ...

As we get higher, the views get better

Berwick Dewpond

Berwick Dewpond Information Board

They grow a lot of Rapeseed around here !

That 4.4 miles done then !

My first view of Barbury Castle - an Iron Age hill fort

That's another 1.6 miles done then.

Information Board about Barbury Castle

The ring ditches of Barbury Castle

View from the embankment

Panorama from Barbury Castle Embankment (North East)

Panorama from Barbury Castle Embankment (South West)

Leaving Barbury Castle car park, and on to Ogbourne St George

Err, this way I think

Far wider views either side as we start to head east.

The farmer is very keen for you to stick to the path !

Horse racing jumps in the distance

The thin dark line above the Rapeseed Flowers is the M4

Excuse me ladies, can I come through please !

And that's me done on the Ridgeway for day 1.  Now to find Val & the car.

More impossibly cute houses, this time in Ogbourne St George.

And here's the stats for the day

And here are my time, height and distance graphs.  Flat green lines are stopping for refreshments !

Total Steps : 34,746