Nine Barrows Down, Ridgeway Hill & Kingston, 15 March 2002

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence no. AL100037454

This was my first experience at using a GPS receiver on the bike and the route shown above is that actually recorded by the GPs as I went along. For more details, see my GPs pages.

The day chosen for the ride had followed a particularly wet spell and even the high ridges were very sticky and made riding very difficult. It also let to quite a few falls but, luckily, no-one was seriously hurt although I still bear the scars of an encounter was a bramble briar nearly four months later! So bad were in the conditions that the first 5 miles (up to waypoint 6) took nearly 3 hours to complete, (with crashes and all) and let to a route revision.

The spot marked as "Duncan's Folly" was so-named when Duncan, in the lead, decided to ignore the route off Ridgeway Hill and follow what he thought was the path. This turned out to lead nowhere being one of the most boggiest areas I had been to by bike, having been churned up for months by a herd of cows. I checked that map and decided the proper route was back up the hill someway and off the the right and I pushed the bike back (riding was impossible). Meanwhile, Duncan and David were still studying the map and after I gone about 100m metres through the thick gooey mud decided that I was wrong and they were right. I was stupid enough to believe them and returned to where they were at the foot of the hill in the deep mud.

I had another look at the map and then told them in no uncertain words that they were wrong after all and so back up the hill through the thick mud we all went!!

In review, it was a superb route but probably even better in summer when the ground would be drier.

Please send any comments to Alan Rolfe - thanks!

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