Category Archives: England

Tuesday, June 17, 2014 Ivinghoe Beacon

We were very fortunate to have glorious weather for our final day. It started off cool, but leaving the B & B, I immediately shed my jackets. It was a short walk past the Tring Station to the trail head. Since we thought we were only walking 5.5 miles, we carried our packs. As we…

Continue Reading →

Monday, June 16, 2014 Wigginton, UK

 Today’s walk provided beautiful vistas from several Chiltern Hills, chalk escarpments in South East England. This morning I saw my first Red Kite, a medium-large bird of prey. Though we climbed up down the various hills, the walk was not strenuous. If fact, it was quite enjoyable. We walked through the outskirts of Princes Risborough,…

Continue Reading →

Sunday, June 15, 2014 Kingston Blount, UK

Lightning, thunder, and driving rain awakened us during the evening. As soon as the sun was up, around 4:00 A.M., the birds started chirping and cawing. Sue May had returned from the reunion and prepared the English Breakfast for Dennis, while I had a lighter meal. She drove us to the trailhead so we wouldn’t…

Continue Reading →

Saturday, June 14, 2014 Ewelme, UK

We had thunder storms all night and awoke to grey skies. Richard and Kim, owners of The Swan were very sympathetic and kind hosts who seem to understand hikers and their needs. In the morning Richard took us to the trailhead so we wouldn’t need to cross the wet fields and shorten our walking about…

Continue Reading →

Friday, June 13, 2014 East Ilsley, UK

Michael Lowrey, the proprietor of the Fox and Hounds, pointed out the stylized Uffington Horse. (Small white spot on hill). It is hard to discern and best when viewed from the air. He has not hiked the Ridgeway and is new to the area, so his directions down from the scarp were misleading. When he…

Continue Reading →

Thursday June 12, 2014 Uffington, UK

By the time we finished taking buses back to where we finished the hike yesterday, it was almost 11 AM. From the start, we climbed steadily under the shade of overhanging trees. Occasionally we could see the Og valley slowly diminishing as we climbed back up to the Ridgeway. Once on top, we were exposed…

Continue Reading →

Wednesday, June 11, Ogbourne St. George

Our B&B hostess treated us to a savory vegetarian English breakfast…fuel for the miles to come. Afterwards we visited the Sanctuary, a prehistoric site on Overton Hill. The site consists of six concentric rings of timbers erected around 3000 BC. In 1930, excavators found 162 postholes, some with double posts. It is believed that he…

Continue Reading →

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 Avebury, UK

We hopped on the train in Portsmouth to Swindon, and the took the number 49 bus to Avebury. As we rode northeast along the coast we saw small hamlets along the bays, the harbors filled with boats and yachts.  The cerulean blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds competed with the dark blue sea and…

Continue Reading →

Friday, May 16, 2014 Dover, UK

We took the complementary ship van past the port construction. From there we strolled through the city of Dover along the Marine Parade to the entrance of the White Cliffs. That took about ¾ hr. so I guess it was around three miles. From the Visitor center to the lighthouse is two miles. This took…

Continue Reading →

2014 Updates

Monday, May 5, 2014. My sister arrived as scheduled at 6:30 am to take us to the Cruise Connection stop. The bus never arrived. I spoke with someone who was awaiting transportation from another company. When the shuttle arrived, Dennis and I were lucky. The driver said he had room for two more and we…

Continue Reading →

Page 1 of 4