Our Ridgeway hike started today with a hike from Avebury to Bishopstone. It’s listed as 17 miles on the trail, but I figure we went closer to twenty considering it took us an hour and a half of wandering around just to find the Ridgeway and our B&B is a mile off the trail. The Fit app, which I think exaggerates, say we did 21.1 with 45,397 steps.
The hike itself was pretty easy. Some ups and downs but nothing difficult. There were many great scenery photo opportunities, but I didn’t take many photos since it was a lot of trouble to get my phone out of its safe dry pocket. It started raining within 5 minutes of the start of the walk and rained until we got to Bishopstone. For most of the day it was a sideways rain because the winds were so strong. The temperature was in the mid 50s.
My waterproof boots stayed dry for most of the trip, but your feet are always eventually going to get wet as your socks get wet and the water soaks through them. I had Frogtogs pants and a good hiking rain-jacket so wasn’t too wet but definitely chilled. We were very happy to finally walk into Bishopstone where we are staying at the Royal Oak. We found out at dinner that the owner had been trying to reach us this morning to offer us a ride from Avebury. Very nice, but we would have declined.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bishopstone is a village and civil parish in the Swindon unitary authority of Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) east of Swindon, and on the county border with Oxfordshire. Since 1934 the parish has included the village of Hinton Parva.
Bishopstone lies on the north slope of the Lambourn Downs, overlooking the Vale of White Horse. It is between Wanborough and Ashbury on the historic Icknield Way. The village has a public house, the Royal Oak,[2] and a number of thatched cottages, centred on a mill-pond.
The village is often used as a base for walkers on the Ridgeway National Trail. The Ridgeway above Bishopstone is a Byway open to motor vehicles between April and October.
On the downs above Bishopstone are ancient field systems known as lynchets and many other historic earth-workings.
A summer in London 