The Ridgeway
Aim
The intention was to be as self sufficient as possible, being able (if required)
to wild camp each night. The guide books and maps indicate that there
are sufficient water points en route, so we didn't need to worry about
that too much. All we had to do was carry enough food for the seven
days we thought it would take us.
We weren't going to be complete martyrs though. If the opportunity of a
pub meal and a couple of pints presented itself then we would make
the most of it. However, we did not plan to deviate from the route in order
to visit a pub.
Overview
The initial plan was for the journey to take seven days, with stops at Wiggington,
Chinnor, Wallingford, Scutchamer's Knob, Idstone and Barbury Castle.
In the end though we made better progress than planned and completed
the distance in six days, as shown below.
|
Start |
End |
Distance (approx) |
Notes |
|
Ivinghoe
Beacon SP960168 |
Coombe Hill SP851067 |
13miles (21km) |
Wild camp |
|
Coombe
Hill SP851067 |
Watlington SU696940 |
15miles (25km) |
White Mark Camp Site |
|
Watlington SU696940 |
South Stoke SU595850 |
12miles (19km) |
Wild Camp |
|
South
Stoke SU595850 |
Sparsholt Firs SU352844 |
21miles (33km) |
Wild Camp |
|
Sparsholt
Firs SU352844 |
Ogbourne St George SU205740 |
16miles (25km) |
Fox Lynch Camp Site |
|
Ogbourne
St George SU205740 |
Avebury SU103699 |
9miles (15km) |
|
Total |
86miles (138km) |
|
Water
The main concern for me when planning this walk was to ensure that we would
be able to refill our water containers often enough. Fortunately there
are a number of taps on the route (see below).
Important Note:
The Harvey Map shows water points at Goring and Southend. We were not able
to find these on the ground, so these should not be relied upon. In
addition the companion guide and the Harvey map show a water point
at Barbury Castle / Upper Herdswick Farm. We could not locate this
point either.
Water Points
| Area |
Grid |
Description |
| Whiteleaf |
SP 825 045 |
Outside the main entrance to the pub there is a stand pipe and
old basin. |
| Watlington |
SU 697 939 |
White Mark Farm camp site |
| Nuffield |
SU 667 874 |
On the outside wall of the church |
| Grim's Ditch |
SU 660 872 |
Grimsdyke cottage, by the gate |
| Compton Down |
SU 505 823 |
On the south side of the trail near the entrance to a ruined
farm and near a narrow tree line |
| Sparsholt Firs |
SU 338 854 |
Just to the west of the drive leading to Hill Barn |
| Idstone Hill |
SU 263 835 |
There is a "cross roads" where the Ridgeway crosses a road to
the north and a track to the south. To the north west of this cross
roads is a stand pipe and trough |
A huge "Thank you" to the individuals and organisations who provide water
to people using the Ridgeway.
Kit
Since we were planning to wild camp we had to take everything with us. We
therefore packed only the bare essentials. My kit consisted of the
following:
| Item |
Notes |
| Tent |
A Coleman
Avior X3, split between the two of us. I carried the
outer, the poles and the pegs. Denise carried the inner. |
| Sleeping Bag |
I used my old British Army issue "green slug" sleeping bag. |
| Sleeping mat |
We used self inflating mats from Alp
Kit. Denise's worked great,
but mine developed a couple of holes and would not stay inflated,
so I didn't get the maximum benefit from it. (additional review
at Buachaille) |
| Stove |
We wanted something small, lightweight, easy to use and that
did not need lots of heavy fuel. We therefore decided on an army
issue hexamine
stove. (Buachaille) |
| Fuel |
Army issue and civilian solid
fuel for the stove. |
| Kettle |
After some discussion about what we were going to eat we decided
that all we would want to do was heat water for the deydrated meals
we were going to take and to make coffee. Therefore a kettle was
all that was needed. Since we would need to boil a maximum of 900ml
of water at a time we chose a 900ml Trangia kettle
from Go
Outdoors. (Buachaille
review) |
| Water bottle |
'58
pattern army issue water bottle. |
| Water bladder |
I chose a 3 litre hydration bladder that sat under the lid of
my rucksac. |
| Spare clothes |
Pants, socks (1000
mile socks from Wiggle),
spare trousers (convertible backpackers from Rohan),
spare Helly
Hansen top, spare shirt (Jungle Vent from Rohan). |
| Food |
I created daily "ration packs" before we left and we divided
these between us |
| Navigation aids |
A Harvey
Map of the entire trail. Waterproof and covering the
whole trail on one sheet this was much better than carrying five
or six OS maps (although there were a couple of inaccuracies).
I also carried a Silva compass but didn't really need
to use it. |
| Mobile phone |
Was this an essential item? Possibly not. However, had we had
an emergency then it would have been possible to call the emergency
services immediately rather than one of us having to walk to the
nearest habitation. |
| Diabetes kit |
Being Type 1 I need to inject insulin twice a day and test my
blood sugar regularly, so I couldn't have done without this. |
| Miscellaneous |
In addition to the above I also carried the guide books, a pot
of Sudocream and some foot spray |
All of this was packed into a 70 litre Rucksac that I bought (I think from
Millets) when I was at university (about 20 years ago).
Other kit, that I wore most of the time was:
Food
We wanted something that was quick and easy, that would give us enough energy
and that we would enjoy eating. For an evening "main course" we
experimented with boil in the bag type food and dehydrated food and decided
that we preferred the taste (and the quantity) of travellunch from Reiter .
Breakfast consisted of a couple of cereal bars. Lunch was a Snickers bar.
These were supplemented with bags of mixed dried fruit (for me) and
mixed nuts and cranberries (for Denise) and Kendal
Mint Cake.
Ridgeway Links
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