Four miles! After walking approximately 160 miles across Wiltshire Downs and Wessex Heights I rather held back from putting the top on my thermos flask, rising up my sixty year old hips and completing the last stretch of stunning countryside into Abbotsbury. How wonderful to have my son J with me every step of the…
Tag: pilgrimage
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: The Stones to the Wheel – Dorchester to Abbotsbury (Part 1)
On the last day of my birthday pilgrimage J and I stepped out early along the back streets of Dorchester and soon reached the huge multiple ramparts of the Iron Age hillfort Maiden Castle. He did not need to reminded that we had last climbed this together when he was 6 years old and I…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: The Stones to the Wheel – Iwerne Minster to Ansty
17 September – It was a beautiful , clear start as I left Iwerne Minster for the day I had labelled my Wessex Heights. I have long had an affection for the poem “Wessex Heights” by Thomas Hardy and indeed have written several posts about it before (found here). I was full of excitement and gratitude…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: The Stones to the Wheel – Ludwell to Iwerne Minster
16 September : The weather changed overnight and all at once it was that season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness”. I traipsed through wet fields past Ludwell watercress beds and then began the long, slow climb up to the view point at Win Green. Not much of a view today but a feeling of claustrophobic…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Warminster to Hindon
14 September. The early morning warmth in the air boded well as I left Warminster, swiftly noted the suitably named Middle Hill and then Scratchbury Hill before reaching Heytesbury. What an idyllically situated village! I passed the ( very small) lock up; then residents taking offerings of jams, tomatoes and scarlet runners to their local…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Market Lavington to Bratton
Thursday 12 September. Market Lavington to Bratton. Weather forecast a bit changeable today and there looked a few interesting villages en route so I came off the Downs again to explore them. I soon left Market Lavington and was out in the fields and woods. For the first half hour I came across a few…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Devizes to Market Lavington
Wednesday 11 September: Resumed the Wessex Ridgeway from the end of The Quakers Walk, Devizes and walked along the Southern side of the Kennet and Avon canal. Weather was a bit drizzly and I only passed one hardy couple. There was a slight detour where the towpath was closed and a trek along the A…
THE WESSEX RIDGEWAY: From the Stones to the Wheel – Avebury to Devizes
Monday 9 September. Left Talbothays, travelled via the bookshop in Marlborough where we bought “Dig, dig, digging” and arrived at a peaceful home in Trusloe, Avebury. Incense, affirmations and crystals added to the energy inherent in this landscape. The Neolithic stone circle is the world’s largest and the Dalai Lama, is said to have declared…
THE HERTFORDSHIRE WAY: Little Wymondley to Codicote
On a morning in early August 2019, A and I began the penultimate leg of our 60th Birthday Pilgrimage along the Hertfordshire Way. We had completed the last leg at Little Wymondley but having considered the busyness of the A602 and following the guidebook’s suggestion we asked the long-suffering Red Hyundai driver to drop…
THE HERTFORDSHIRE WAY: Hare Street to Royston
Two years and three weeks since we started our 60th Birthday Pilgrimage along the Hertfordshire Way we are reaching the North Eastern corner and beginning our journey back to our starting place in St Albans. Each section of the trail has been different and rewarding in its own way and today’s 13 mile stretch from…
