Take The Long Way Home

Sunday 12 November 2023

The Ridgeway is reckoned to be one of the very oldest ‘green roads’ in Europe; it is for the most part an ancient drovers’ track that runs for around 87 miles from Overton Hill on the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire eastwards to Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire. These seemingly random start and end points are explained by the fact that the Ridgeway National Trail, as we know it today, is actually just a section of a longer route linking the Wessex Ridgeway from Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast with the Icknield Way and Peddars Way that terminate near Holme-next-the-Sea on The Wash in west Norfolk.

I last walked The Ridgeway in its entirety nearly two decades ago, and I have decided, fairly much on impulse, to attempt it once more – this time amongst the autumn colours of mid-November. Starting in Wiltshire and walking west-to-east, my hope, at this stormy time of year, is that these strong south-westerly winds that we are enjoying currently will assist my eastward progress and keep at least some of the rain out of my eyes! We shall see – or not, as the case may be.

So today I have booked my rail ticket down to the small Wiltshire town of Pewsey, studied the weather forecast avidly, and packed my rucksack for the challenge ahead.

As many of you will know, I like to keep a written and photographic record of my walks, via this Blog, adopting song titles as my headings – today’s is borrowed from a number by progressive rock group Supertramp, penned by the band’s frontman Roger Hodgson, and taken from their 1979 album ‘Breakfast In America’. Hodgson has claimed this song to be ‘a metaphor for the universal journey of self-discovery’. In any event, I hope to complete the walk over the next few days, and as usual I will be posting a daily progress report – not necessarily each and every day, but as soon as time and wifi signal permit. I hope that you all will enjoy sharing my journey, as I take the long way back home along this ancient English pathway.