Ridgeway - Streatley to Uffington Castle (26th April 2006)

Well this was the big one, on the map it measured 18.8 miles and that wasn't taking into account any ups & downs.

Starting at the Streatley car park (92m spot height), walk up towards the hills of the North Wessex Downs. Quick tea break at the top, in amongst some trees with a lot of mad crows/rooks in them, blimey the noise they make.

The ridgeway is again a really wide trail for all of the section we walk today. Most of the day we've got a great view over the Vale of White Horse

Pass under the A34 near Chilton, and head up the hill towards Bury Down car park.

We stop for a break in a nice patch of woods near the car park at , which has I think a tumulus in the middle of it. Reminds me a bit of Weylands Smithy, but not as imposing.

Sedgway / Letcombe Castle, another hill fort passes us by on the right
- mental note, must go and check it out sometime, along with the waterfall in Letcombe Bassett

Trudged over the hillside, past the trig point (259m), then down towards the car park at Uffington Castle
- got to give NT full marks for the siting of this one, it's in a tree lined hollow, completely masking it from the countryside around
- in summer, it stays nice and cool, and when it blowing a gale, it's nice and sheltered.

Joy, oh joy, the ice cream van was there, so it was two 99's please.

Then back to Streatley to pick up the other car. Nearing the original car park, we saw a "mature" guy (I know I'm no spring chicken, but he was older than me) sat beside the road with a younger woman stood beside him. I thought the couple were familar. I was sorting out my things and we checked to see if they were Ok ...
Not surprised he was looking a bit tired, he'd just walked all the way from Avebury THAT DAY. He'd done the walk for charity, set of a 6am and it was about 8:30pm when we got back to Streatley

Feel really proud of today, first time I've ever walked that far, feet sore, glad to have finished, but well pleased

Big difference in this walk compared to the previous sections, is the nature of the countryside. The ridgeway in the Chilterns has lots of sections of woodland, with some clearer valleys in between. So unlike the Downs section, they are rambling, rolling hills with a great view to the north (apart from our old friend, Didcot power station, how oh how did they ever get planning permission for that eye sore !!)

Really annoying point of the day, near the end of the walk, when we were really tired, BRUMM, BRUMM, noise of two stroke engines coming rapidly towards us. We saunter towards the green sides, actually we dashed as best we could and there was little sides to go to. Good thing we did, because then the first of four trail bikes comes blasting round a blind corner and zooms down the hill towards us. It's bad enough they're speeding, but the really "angry of Reading" is this was the 23rd April, and the ridgeway does open to motor traffic until the 1st May !!!

And did I mention the weather, it was a glorius sunny day, my left side is well red, thus showing we were walking east to west