Saturday 18th July 2026
Not a bad sleep in the wood TBH. Woke at 6ish & then packed up the tent. Said good morning to my neighbours – a bunch of cows who gave me a suspicious bit of side-eye as I passed by before enjoying a beautiful 2 mile descent down into Avebury village. As I had the place to myself for an hour so before the tourists turned up I had a look at the stone circle. Apparently the site was initially built in 2850BC with upgrades up to 2200BC (not sure they had planning permission for this though).
My army mate John arrived at about 0830 & after a bit of breakfast in the cricket club cafe we headed back up on the Ridgeway at about 1000 to begin the route proper like.
The Ridgeway is ‘Britains oldest road’ starting in Avebury & finishing 87 miles later at Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. Today we were only doing about 40 miles of it.
As the name suggests the Ridgeway is largely on the top of a ridge that crests ancient chalk downlands. On a good day (like the one we had) one could get spectacular views over Wiltshire, Oxfordshire & Berkshire, & then Buckinghamshire & Hertfordshire once you went round the corner a bit.
From the off I’d just like to point out that I knew that the G-Line was not going to have the climbing* ability of my mates gravel bike, but he showed good patience & duly took the pish at every opportunity where I had to get off & push (which was quite often).
*The standard Shimano Alfine gearing just doesn’t go low enough to climb serious hills when loaded – that’s my excuse & I’m sticking to it!!
We stopped for refreshments in a village called Ashbury which was much needed as it was getting a tad warm. After a quick doze in a nearby field & a quick discussion as to the lines on the side of the hill before us we carried on. Apparently these are called ‘strip lynchets’ & were dug into the hill to make farming easier.
Under tyre the Ridgeway itself was a hotchpotch of compacted & loose gravel, baked chalk, powdered chalk (especially around Scutchamer Knob), grass, as well as the odd bit of tarmac. Some of the justified & ancient places that we passed on the route:
- Hackpen Hill
- Barbury Castle
- Former Burbage to Swindon railway (now a cycle lane that I will investigate at another time)
- Liddington Castle
- Kingstone/Odstone Coombes
- Waylands Smithy
- Uffington Castle & white horse
- Letcombe Castle
Once under the A34 the trail was fairly easy going & the 3 or 4 mile descent into Goring on Thames was just awesome. I can recommend the chippie in the village for some post-ride stodge.
Stats
- Distance – about 40 miles
- Steepest climb/hill walk – Burderop Down to Smeathe’s Ridge
- Insect bites – 2
- Number of expletives uttered hanging on for dear life on gravelly descents – lost count
- Tiredness rating – completely fecked
- Annoying Northern army mate – 1
The Dawdlers Club 
Letters to the editor