Ridgeway 2013 day 2

Wednesday 14^th August 2013 Wendover to Watlington

Out of Wendover and ascending up Bacombe Hill I was overcome with an unpleasant stench of dog crap, that lingered for most of the climb.  It was obviously used frequently by dog owner’s (there were some nearby).  I don’t recall seeing any of it on the ground, so that’s a plus.

Bacombe Hill

I came across another guy, Rob, who was doing the Ridgeway, who I spoke to briefly.  He also had Watlington as his destination tonight, but I never saw the guy again.

I mused somewhat on taking photographs of these trails, and how later when looking at the 2-dimensional images much would be lost – the 360 degrees around and 180 degrees above of sounds, smells, weather, and the feel of the trail underfoot.

This being my first LDW in England, it took me some time to get comfortable walking the footpaths across farmer’s fields – it really felt like I was trespassing.  Even more so when I walked through Chequer’s Estate with its imposing security cameras and “no trespassing” signs.

Chequer's Estate

It was nice to experience wildlife, the red kites, rabbits, butterflies and wood pigeons, but I missed a couple of trail features I was expecting to see – the Whiteleaf chalk cross near Cadsden was one, and an underground railway just after Princes Risborough that I apparently walked over without even realising it.

The afternoon contained a nice wooded area, then past numerous chalk pits, and finally along a very straight stretch that became a little monotonous, before running beneath a motorway.

The B&B, situated on a country road, was a little difficult to find.  I walked past it a couple of times before noticing a tiny sign.  This was the other high-priced B&B I was staying at, but once shown to my “room” I was quite shocked.  I was on a sofa-bed in a sunroom (so not a bedroom at all) on the ground floor and the bathroom was a trek upstairs.  A piece of cake and cup of tea, and an offer of a ride to a nearby restaurant for dinner did not do much to alleviate my disappointment, however.  An then I discovered he would drop me at the restaurant at 7, and I would have to walk back in the dark, but was unable to gain access to the house again until after 10.

The pub I ate at had numerous grapevines growing throughout and had an extremely low ceiling, so much so that you had to duck and weave back and forth to avoid the bunches of grapes hanging down.  I did manage to kill the 3 hours by catching a footie match on the telly in the pub though.

Day 3