Day 2: Monday 31 July. Bishopstone to Letcombe Regis (9 miles).
Another cooked breakfast this morning (so the previous evening's idea of not having full English didn't last), with 2 very chatty older ladies. We took up the offer of a packed lunch from here. This was very necessary as the path did not go near anywhere where we could eat all day.
We left the B&B at 10:00am. Once again it was sunny. From Bishopstone we went up the bridle-path and joined the Ridgeway where we had left it about 1 kilometre west of Ridgeway Farm.
We did spend some time trying to find a crop circle in the field opposite Wayland's Smithy. We had no luck so amused ourselves around the burial chamber instead. As today's walk was considerably shorter than yesterday's we were happy to explore things by the path.
As we walked away we passed a few crop circle junkies searching the area. From the Smithy we went up the hill to Uffington Castle. We did look around the castle, and could see the crop circle in the field we had been looking in. It was very windy at the top, so we did not stop there long.
Once we dropped down after Whitehorse Hill the wind was less noticeable, and we were butterfly spotting again.
Then it rained. It continued to rain for quite some time, and it was hard. We had our lunch standing up under a dripping tree. Our coats were fine, but the water ran down our legs and in to our boots. Summer is great in Britain.
Once it stopped raining, we did stop for a mid-afternoon snack in the sun, drying our clothes.
We were at the B&B (The Old Vicarage, Letcombe Regis) by 4:30. There was no shower here, so we both had a bath. The local pub (about 20 metres away) did not serve food on Monday, so our host took us and Tim (another Ridgeway walker) in to Wantage. We ate at The Lamb PH, a lovely old pub with modern parts and a good menu selection.
Tim (a musician from London) was good company for the evening, and the food was good as well. We chose to stay light with our menu choices tonight; we are trying desperately not to eat too much, and we were both hunting vegetables and flavour! Richard - rice & chilli, Hil - rice & vegetable curry.
After a quick look around the square, we got a taxi back to the B&B by 9:00pm. It was a bit windy, but the taxi driver reckoned the weather was going to be OK the next day. We decided we would listen to the forecast anyway.