If you don't like the British weather then just wait for a couple of hours. I woke up to thunder and rain this June morning. At one point on the journey to the start point of this walk, the rain was so heavy that I expected to be overtaken by Noah's Ark, but the rain stopped completely about half an hour before the walk started.
The weather clearly put a lot of people off as only six people turned up for Sue's walk - three regulars and three guests. We assembled at the start point and donned our waterproofs, expecting more rain, but had to remove them after less than an hour of walking because it was getting rather warm.
From the car park we set off north along The Ridgeway, which starts here at Overton Hill and makes its way north-east through Wiltshire and the Chilterns, finishing at Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, covering a distance of 87 miles.
We only stayed on it for a couple of miles before diverting off to the east on the Wessex Ridgeway for about a mile and then heading north to join the White Horse Trail. This route took us up and down, through farmland and some rather muddy woodland, eventually arriving on the other side of Hackpen Hill in a field of buttercups and the White Horse.
Despite sounding like the name of a pub, the White Horse is a large figure of a horse, carved into the chalk of the hillside. Its origin is uncertain but it is believed to have been cut in 1838 by Henry Eatwell, a Broad Hinton parish clerk, with the assistance of the landlord of a local pub, to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria.
We stopped here to have our picnic lunch and admire the view. After lunch we re-joined The Ridgeway along the top of Hackpen Hill, this time heading south, but before reaching the intersection with the Wessex Ridgeway, we diverted south-west.
This short-cut took us through another farm and back onto the Wessex Way, which we followed into the picturesque village of Avebury, built within a Neolithic Henge composed of three circles of standing stones.
Our first stop was the Red Lion pub, where we rehydrated and rested our legs before further exploring the village. The reputation of the cakes in the Circles Café decided our next stop. After indulging ourselves, we continued our walk with a tour around the standing stones before leaving the village on a footpath heading south alongside the River Kennet.
We passed Silbury Hill on our way to West Kennet Long Barrow. Silbury Hill is possibly the largest Neolithic man-made mound in the world, being similar in size to some of the smaller Egyptian pyramids at Giza. Its purpose is not known. It is not a burial mound, unlike most of the other barrows in the area.
West Kennet Long Barrow, on the other hand, is a Neolithic tomb, and this was our next stop after crossing the A4 and walking up the hill between fields of barley and of wheat. This chambered long barrow is believed to have been constructed around 3600 BC. Archaeological excavations have found at least 46 burials, ranging from babies to elderly persons.
We explored the accessible part of the interior of the long barrow. Then we went back down the hill we had just come up and took a footpath going east that ran roughly parallel to the A4. This took us through farmland and on more muddy paths before turning north back to the car park where we'd started.
Just before reaching the car park, we passed the site of a stone circle known as The Sanctuary. We stopped to look at it. There were small wooden markers indicating where the stones had once stood, with an information board in front. This seemed a little unimpressive compared to what we had already seen today.
We'd taken our time on this 14½ mile walk as there were so many interesting things to see, not to mention having stopped at the pub and the café. We finished around 6pm. See our route on Bing Maps.
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