Woolly tree protest, chocolate, and a near-death experience

WEDNESDAY: Princes Risborough to Tring

We actually started early-ish this morning. Dad had set his phone to wake us with Reveille. Ha ha I don't think.

 

We had lots of filling tinned stuff from the food stash for breakfast. But we still had to carry the empty tins away because there were no bins.

 

8.05am: Nomity nomity nom nom nom.

8.43am: Dad took ages packing everything away, as usual.

8.47am

We didn't take any water though because there was a tap very near. It was outside a pub. We asked if they were open but they weren't. Dad seemed disappointed. Don't know what the problem was... the tap was working!

10.18am: The cat at the tap at the Plough at Cadsden.

10.31am

10.46am

10.49am

10.49am

 At about 11-o'clock we saw Chequers, but we didn't see the Prime Minister.

10.57am

11.03am

11.31am: You can't catch me, I'm the hay bale man.

12.08pm: Getting near the monument on Coombe Hill.

12.33pm: At Coombe Hill Monument.

When we reached Wendover it was still very very hot. We topped up our water supplies in Budgen, had an amazing ice-cold milkshake, then got an ice lolly. I think everyone should be able to enjoy an ice lolly but there are lots of people who can't even afford a proper dinner. If you would like to help, please sponsor my walk so that Luton Foodbank can keep making food parcels. Please click here and please share with your friends too: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=dirkwithnail

1.58pm: First real smile in ages!

3.06pm: Train fans take note.

3.33pm: A Donnie Darko rabbit marked in dried salt. #blackmagic

3.33pm: Mine was a horned goat. Even more #denniswheatley

 We stopped for a snack and a drink.

4.05pm: Cooling off in the shade.

4.21pm: Got me some walking poles.

4.21pm

4.48pm: Grim's Ditch again? Or someone elses?

5.01pm: Obelisk.

5.11pm: Mound.

6.26pm: Spooky woods. Till the Gymkhana passed through.

6.30pm: Tring Park. Much more cheerful!

6.30pm

6.40pm

6.40pm: Resting peacefully (it says here).

6.41pm

6.45pm

6.47pm: Balloon!

7.00pm

We got to Tesco outside Tring at about 8-o'clock. We got lots of goodies and ate some of them on the bench outside.

8.14pm: Zoological confusion in the Tesco car park.

It got dark while we were walking the last bit to our camp. We decided to miss out a very short stretch of dangerous looking road by going on the other side of a field. It didn't work. The road was just as dangerous but there was more of it! I put my rucksack in jellybean mode and every time a car came we had to jump in the hedge!

Eventually we left the road and it was totally dark. We found a spot to camp and Dad pitched the tent by torchlight.

While he was doing that I found a compass and some coins on the ground behind a bench. I've put them on the bench so the owner can find them, but I expect they're miles away now.

It's been a VERY long day and it's VERY hot in the tent but we can't open the doors properly because there are loads of flying insects trying to eat us. I can hear a fox barking a few metres away.

Tomorrow we will reach the end of the Ridgeway!

Distance covered: 24.713km

Add to Anti-Banner

Hello from Watlington

MONDAY: A real camp site at last!

When we woke up this morning we collected our clothes from the drying room. Dad washed them in the sink last night. We had a gigantic breakfast then left the Youth Hostel and walked over the bridge into Goring.

 

 

Me crossing the Thames

Our feet weren't so bad today. Dad has new insoles and didn't complain as much. We arrived at White Mark camp site and straight away had another shower. Then we walked into Watlington to get food. We had dinner from the chip shop.

I had a Mars bar in batter, which I've wanted to try for ages.

More nom!

The camp site is lovely. It's really quiet. They let you charge your phone and camera so we did that because the battery had been getting low and we want to take more pictures.

The longest day (so far...)

SUNDAY: Long walk to Streatley

We got up a bit earlier this morning. While we were having breakfast, a man walked past and we talked to him. He told us he'd started from Ogbourne St George today! He had walked further before we had breakfast than we had walked all of yesterday. He said he was going to walk to the Youth Hostel in Streatley.

7.34am: I had an extra lie-in while Dad packed the tent.



8:19am: The dent of the tent.

We started walking and Dad noticed something wrong with his boots. He looked inside and the footbed has crushed down as thin as paper. Once we started walking we came across a sign showing where we were.

9.10am: Do not trust the "You are here" grid reference - it's for a point several fields to the north!

At about 10-o'clock we arrived at the Court Hill Centre, which was a bit off the Ridgeway, but we didn't mind because it has a tea room! By this time, Dad's feet were both hurting a lot. When we were at home we planned that we would stop at Court Hill for the night but we didn't book because we didn't know how fast we'd end up walking. When it turned out we were doing very well on Friday we decided not to bother because we'd want to camp further on. But today Dad's boots were hurting so much we changed out minds. But they had no camping spaces left.

10.15am: Ready for cake!

The tea room wasn't supposed to open until 10.30, but the lady saw us waiting on the bench outside and said we could buy something straight away. We sat in the courtyard and there were loads of swallows swooping about. I had one piece of cake, one piece of flapjack, and a Pepsi Max. Dad had two pieces of cake and a pot of tea.

We talked a bit and came up with a plan. Dad phoned Aunty Sarah and asked her to meet us in Streatley (the next town) with some better insoles and also his spare boots. After a bit we remembered our conversation with the man who passed us at breakfast time, and we came up with a better plan: We asked Sarah to meet us at about 6.30pm on the outskirts of Streatley and give us a lift to the Youth Hostel. (That's where I am right now! But we had to walk a long way after Court Hill to get here!)

After leaving Court Hill, we saw a lady on a horse and then we saw a drone flying along the path. It passed right above us. Maybe we'll be on YouTube tomorrow!

12.24pm: I don't know if Spartacus has been found yet, but I thought I'd share this in case he hasn't.

We hardly saw anyone else for the rest of the day's walk. It was horribly horribly hot, and my feet started to ache. Dad said his feet were hurting more than ever.

12.34pm: Having another rest.

Because we knew we would be able to get water when we got here, we threw away all the water we were carrying except what we needed to drink for the walk to Streatley. Dad said that made his rucksack much lighter and helped a bit.

2.56pm: This tunnel was so lovely and cool!

4.40pm: Me waiting while Dad tried changing to a thinner pair of outer socks. (It didn't work. LOL)

4.52pm: It was hard to make a smile for the camera.

We got to the carpark outside Streatley at 6.35pm. Before we had even taken off our rucksacks, Sarah's car appeared. Good timing! We were very pleased to see them.

6.42pm: The Cavalry.

Sarah's car only takes two people, so she drove Dad to the Youth Hostel to check in and I waited with Uncle Kenny. She came back and got me and then she went back for Kenny. When I arrived here, Dad was already in the shower. I had a shower as soon as he had finished.

Afterwards we went to the pub on the corner and sat in the garden for a bit. It was lovely to have a proper chair, and the grass was lovely and soft so we sat there barefoot!

8.31pm: In the garden of The Bull, Streatley. Dad won't tell me why they all giggled at this sign.

We've just had our dinner (Mum sent us some extra goodies with the boots). It's really hot in this bedroom but there's a fan so it's not so bad. We haven't seen the Speedy Man from this morning yet. He's probably on Ivinghoe Beacon by now.

We're both using bottom bunks in case our feet are so bad in the morning that we can't get down a ladder.


Distance covered: 25.705km.

First full day on the Ridgeway

SATURDAY: Walking to Sparsholt Firs  We were supposed to wake up at 5am today, but we had a lie in because we had a late finish last night. So we were awake at about 7.30.

7.46am: First sight of camp site. (We arrived in the dark).

We took our time and had breakfast and brushed our teeth before packing the tent.

8.59am: More than three hours behind schedule!

We had been walking for about ten minutes when we saw what would have been an ideal place to camp last night. It was level and sheltered and even had a bench where we could have had our breakfast.

9.30am: On the other hand, we might have been squished.

9.42am: Turn left.

Because of our late start, it was after ten-o'clock when we arrived at the place where we hid the food on the way from Swindon. It was a nice surprise when we unwrapped it because we made the parcel a couple of months ago and forgot what we put in it. Please ask your friends to sponsor my walk here. A food parcel from Luton Foodbank makes a real difference to people in difficulty and is so much more important than mincing about in a rucksack.

10.26am: HOW much cling-film, Dad?!!

We had a snack and drank lots of water, then put the rest of the stuff in Dad's rucksack and carried on walking.

11.07am: I went jellybean because we were about to walk next to a road.

We had to be careful walking next to the road, but mostly there was a wide verge. We promised ourselves a pitstop when we got back on a proper path.

11.39am: Special thanks to the two cyclists who whizzed past our resting place and did amazing skids so the dust went in our faces. Wish I was as cool as you.

12.23pm: Me with a wind farm in the background.

12.44pm: We passed a bunch of flags in the middle of nowhere.

1.34pm: Took some time out to just be really really ridiculously Goodlooking.

After topping up our water bottles (and soaking our hot heads) at a tap at Idstone Farm, we walked on to Wayland's Smithy and got there at 1.45pm. There was quite a lot of people there because it's not far from a car park. But we had the place to ourselves after a while. Dad just lay there not moving. He said he didn't need an ambulance or anything, so I went exploring.

1.56pm

2.42pm

We had planned to camp near here, and we arrived an hour late. But we started walking three hours late, so we had caught up very well. We decided to just have our lunch and a rest, then do some more walking. As it got near 4-o'clock we reached Uffington Castle. It was a long steep walk up to the top but I still had plenty of energy to run about like a mad thing when we got there. We saw a man with a big kite. He was nearly lifted off the ground when the wind blew hard. I went off and found the Uffington White Horse while Dad stayed and guarded the rucksacks - which involved bravely sitting on the grass taking photos.

4.03pm

4.17pm

4.17pm

4.18pm

When we reached the next tap (just before Sparsholt Firs) we decided to camp.

6.34pm: Pleased to be camped at last

6.35pm: Sparsholt Firs

We had our dinner once the tent was up, and now we are lying in our sleeping bags waiting for sleep Distance covered: 18.273km