Ridgeway Day 0

• Start: Home
• End: Thistle Express, Swindon
• Walking Distance: 4.5 km
• Total Time: 3 hours

Day 0 for our Ridgeway Adventure!

This trip was originally designed as a motivator for Craig to get fit after his chemo finished in February, but unfortunately that didn’t altogether go to plan 🙁 The two test walks we did, (42km from Salisbury to Winchester on the hottest day of the year and 22 very hilly km on a miserable day in North Northumberland) both almost ended in divorce, so it is with a certain amount of trepidation that we start the longest continuous walking adventure so far.

We will be walking from Avebury in Wiltshire, the site of the pre-historic monument, the Avebury Ring, to the Ivinghoe Beacon in Hertfordshire. An ancient route dotted with pre-historic settlements, stunning scenery and hopefully some decent pubs! It will take us 8 days of walking and approximately 180KM of distance walked.

First, however, we have to get to the start! Over the last few months, we’ve done a huge amount of planning, booking and other preparations, quite a lot of which involved buying huge amounts of new kit! So, when we got it all assembled this morning, it was a bit daunting!!

Q) Can we fit it all in the bags?

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A) Yes!!

Q) Can we then pick up said bags?

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A) Yes – at the moment! 🙂

The first stage of our journey was the 4.5km trip from our house to the local train station, a trip peppered with conversations from neighbours:

Neighbour: What on earth are you doing?

Us: We’re going to walk the Ridgeway!

Neighbour: What from here!!

Us: No, from Swindon.

Neighbour: You don’t want to go there, it’s worse than Slough!

Eventually, we made it to the train station, only to discover that Great Western Railway didn’t want to go to Swindon either!! They had cancelled the last three trains!

Eventually however, we managed to wend our way to the lovely town of Swindon.

We are staying tonight in the Swindon Thistle Express, chosen more for its proximity to the Bus Station that it’s stunning views of the Wiltshire Countryside!

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We did however make one discovery. After wandering aimlessly around Swindon town centre, we found an award winning Indian Restaurant, which we knew was award winning because they had written it all across the building!

It proved to be a lovely traditional Indian, unchanged since the 1970’s, with amazing chandeliers, crisp linen tablecloths and napkins and waiters in traditional Indian dress.

Craig had a Goan Lamb Curry with Pilau Rice:

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I had Lamb Biryani:

Washed down with two pints of Cobra.

A very nice meal and great service, definitely a fitting start to our adventures!