Ridding past Cows through Avebury on The King Alfred’s way.

Wansdyke , Beckhampton , Avebury , Streatley , Goring , Whitchurch-on-Thames , Reading.

White Horse Trail , The Ridgeway , Mid wilts way , Wessex Ridgeway , Sarsen Way , Thames path

King Alfred’s Way 365 km – Ascent 3020m – Descent 3009m – Highest point 276 m – Lowest point 32m. Full route https://out.ac/ILYoUM
Mostly off-road cycling route. Loop around historic Wessex, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Alfred the Great. Connects four of England’s National Trails: North Downs Way, South Downs Way, The Ridgeway, and Thames Path. Connecting some of England’s most iconic sites.

Athelstan was an Anglo-Saxon king who lived from 894 to 939. He is regarded by historians as the first King of England. Athelstan was the son of Edward the Elder and the grandson of Alfred the Great.
English largely descend from two main historical population groups: the West Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who settled in Southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans, and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons who already lived there.

Filmed 13th and 14th August 2023
Cycling The King Alfred’s Way guidebook @ https://amzn.to/48MKZYZ
Day four 80km – Ascent 662m – Descent 499m . https://out.ac/IMFPWT

Hiking and camping gear in this video also the Camera kit to film this episode can be purchased from my shop @ https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/4sb

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well good morning folks um I had a really good sleep that’s the best camping spot i’ve camped here before it’s Wednesday you can see it in my other videos fantastic spot uh cuz the King Alfred’s Way actually goes across a bit further down across Wikeke and I thought I got to camp here because I know it’s a perfect spot it was windy it was raining this protects you from the wind and um just had a perfect night’s sleep had quite a bit of food and drink with me so it was just a really cozy night uh going to get the uh tent down riding back down to the uh King Alford Trail so pretty much it’s about Hampton it’s all the way downhill so I don’t even have to pedal it is pretty slippy haven’t got the best tires for this surface so I met some uh people doing the King Alfred’s way yesterday and they’re going to stop at Pusely they’re not camping on the way there accommodation so you can do it that way so you don’t have to carry so much and I’m only carrying a lot cuz I carry my camera gear as well that includes obviously a lot of battery packs which is not light i’ve only had a chance to charge them up once this is new the farmer Abury for accommodation at the farm and there’s a phone number for you to call um this is on the way to Backham down the hill from the chalk ridge another another section where I’ve just got to push the bike just to know I can ride along here with the the tires I got and the pedals keep getting stuck in the uh the sides hey so we’re descending down into Beckham we’re descending down into Beckham i don’t know i don’t know which part of the track to go on which is better the middle part is too slippy for me cuz it’s mud side part I’m just going to keep crashing into the sides safe to say I’m probably going to get a grip bike grip gravel bike is it gravel bike that’s what they’re called okay so we’re coming into the uh little village of Brock Brockampton this is quite a busy road actually that goes through Avery so look you got sign there for Avery and Silbury Hill avery farm kitchen shop probably won’t be open this entrance point into a going towards Avery we’re going to go we’re going past the Adam and Eve stones there’s some information here if you want to read it there you go it’s right by the road so I thought might as well got a quick bit of drone footage as you would have seen and now we’re heading into this is Avery coming up now which way am I going so we’ll go down here a bit more I think i think it’s Avery or is it another little village by right by Avery it’s got a bree truss light we got a turn here on frog lane maybe is that what it’s called got red phone box has it still got the phone in it or is it that’s the fibator okay so this is a very proper now it’s definitely Avery if that other little place was just a small little settlement right by Avery it looks like there’s a old ponds there it’s pretty much all like mar swampland now there’s no sign about it by it but most of you folks have never walked this far up um from the stone circle have you if you’ve visited Avery before it’s more of Avery perhaps you have not seen before this is all Avery village i guess it’s connected to Avery oh look at that might I’m going this way i am entering the sort of ring of April now got to remember large part of the uh stone circle is missing it’s it’s gone a lot of it’s been reut up all of it’s been reut up in the not so long past it’s a church there it’s quite early still is it August Saturday the tourists haven’t arrived yet i doubt the the shops open till like 9 what time is it it’s like 6 something perhaps or no 8:04 but it opens at 9:00 yeah closed i ain’t waiting around for it to open get a move on closed what time does it open ah 10 10:00 a.m anyway 10 A B Hen Shop 10:30 oh Sunday and there’s the famous Red Lion pub everyone drinks that for the summer solstice and I believe we’re going through this way straight up to the Ridgeway yep so Ridgeway founders I wonder just how many people have done this ridge way um it’s one of the most popular uh national trails in um England i think it might be the most popular or it was there we are leaving the uh stone ring uh the henge is it a henge i guess it must be don’t call it a henge though do we call it a not like Stonehenge but Stonehenge isn’t even the henge so it doesn’t make sense h tires ain’t going to be able to handle this oh god hope this is not deep that was all right almost at the Ridgeway now let’s hope the track is better for riding it’s not going to be so overgrown but it’s going to have all these like sort of groove marks from where all the tires have been so this is the bit where I joined the ridgeway pretty much all the way to goring I think well it’s not too bad oh this bit’s better it’s annoying when you go to put your foot down if you’re scared then you got like a ditch groove ditch right next to you i can’t put my foot on the ground i’m just going to come off the bike so that’s where I come from earlier on sorry about it being so dark by the way guys there’s not much I can do really there are obviously parts of the ridgeway like this i knew there was like grooves and stuff in the ground but I didn’t I forgot it was like muddy like this i thought it was like chalk but chalk slippy as well isn’t it i’ve tried riding in it but the bike just Yeah keep coming off almost cuz the It’s the tires as well and it isn’t a dirt bike remember or grip bike it’s gravel bike that’s what you call them isn’t it definitely got to get myself a gravel bike all right morning look I just noticed this coffee lunch shop 3 km oh we can ride the bike at last that’s it yeah that’s all right quite rocky bit too rocky for this bike really at the moment on it i think we’re coming out for the uh hemp peeking white horse which is from the I think over 18th or 17th century it’s not a It’s known not to be an ancient uh hill chalk figure oh yeah that white horse was this one i’ve seen that one i believe that was made in the 2000s on Barnes on White Mil Chair Hill chill Hill monuments up there famous for the Chillh Hill um gang that used to rob people of stage coaches don’t think I’ve seen that one possibly seen that one possibly seen that one i think I’ve seen that one the trail is much better now in places it’s uh good in places it’s bad there is a ridiculously big solar farm over there looks bloody horrible put the bloody things on top of people’s houses not bloody where you should be growing food ridiculous looks bloody horrible man seriously really horrible it’s humongous that’s new that is so I wasn’t there when I last come along here well they did have one but it wasn’t as large as that it’s just going to get bigger and bigger ain’t it okay so we’re coming up for Barbar Castle which yeah I remember when I first attempted the Ridgeway I spilt all my I camped up on there and it was hot summer and I spilled all my bloody water didn’t I on the stove oh yeah it Castle’s usually quite busy quite a popular place there used to be a like a food van up up there in when it in season so I’m kind of hoping there is now ah hope they take card cuz I just realized got no cash i’ve got to walk up through Barry Castle unless this trail the Alfred’s way King Alfred’s way goes a slightly different way to the ridgeway here i better check some information there if you want to pause it and read it i’m just going up here now it’s starting to rain so I’ll probably use some old stock drone footage for you so the ridgeway goes straight through the middle of Barbrey Castle which I’m doing now all right probably bothers to put football water on it’s not cold more information here if you want to read about it i’m going to pause it guessing this is the way I got to go might put my phone at the moment can’t be bothered to put it in the uh waterproof housing in my pocket instead i know this is the Ridgeway i’m just presuming that the whole the rest of the King Alfred Way is on the Ridgeway that’s that’s part of the trail it’s for sure i remember this part it’s funny how you remember things being maybe sometimes a bit different or you think somewhere else is somewhere else oh wow can’t remember it being this beautiful that is stunning got how beautiful the actual ridgeway is absolutely stunning it is this one’s out shooting can’t remember this section being this long but clearly it is anyway I don’t see any other hikers hopefully I’m on the right bloody trail no vehicles or motorcycles keep to the foot path it’s better than I remember it a nice trail right let me get past you guys it’s all right it’s all right coming past no need to be worried don’t have that actually done a right by the gate i mean is there any need for that i just assume they’ll be the same for London yeah oh yeah they just took my raincoat off and it starts bloody raining again i just can’t believe it can’t be bothered to put it back on nice crotches there and which way am I supposed to go up this way I think yeah there’s going to be no shops here where’s the right midway white horse 12 piles i reckon this bit now is going to be nice and easy not too far to uh Lizzington Castle which is above basically Swindon you can see Swindon from there i can see Lington Castle now in the distance hey the bench is still there cool cool well I just stopped for a rest had a gangster pasti uh and some lucay so beautiful along here my god oh my favorite part this is probably unridable for my bike cuz it’s just so slippy be surprised just how slippy this is it is literally like being on ice it’s gone hot guys now there’s some clouds so it’s not going to be constant uh sun doesn’t smell good it’s a lot of poo in it this bit coming up might be too steep from my bike brakes um with the weight on my back remember it being quite a walk up here i did the Ridgeway the first time actually see I didn’t realize but from here I can actually I think I can see White Horse Hill in the distance it’s not like seriously steep it’s just that my these are it’s a cheap bike cheap cheap brakes i think it’s better just to push it down there to be honest [Music] no iPhone box on temps which is I think basically goring 24 miles I got that’s where I’m sort of like aiming for oh yeah all right all right okay all right good all right oh good yeah uh Yeah yeah yeah hence the tent yeah yeah all right mate um do you take card payments here contactless yeah cool i got pork and barbecue sauce frankfurt hot dogs with or without onions um bacon got vegetarian tortilla homemade sausage rolls um could I have the the hot dog how much how much is that mate okay yeah would you like some onions uh yes please yep is that cranberry and ginger and the lemon cups with them uh oh no mate cheers what time would you recommend me if I want to have this right out of the office radio station i sure there used to be a water tap here nothing would be tempting downhill but that means you got to come back up the hill bring the bar up to the ridgeway that’s what I say wonderful this car park’s a bit Oh my god look at the potholes man it’s like the craters of the moon it’s like being on the moon oh yeah that was hard work oh just a bit with especially with these potholes all right thank you thank you smoothie all right bic of course way smithy atmospheric minific long barrerow on the ridgeway named after Saxon Smith god wayand all right cheers thank you and there you can see White Horse Hill the people where I just had the uh got a hot dog and some drinks they used to um do it in the car park there i thought they did i knew there was one there so just going past White Horse Hill now on the Ridgeway i uh ah thank you very much cheers cheers thank you just gone past from the old uh camping spot I usually stop at if anyone’s stopping there tonight doing the ridgeway but it’s far too early for me to camp there unfortunately i’ got to keep going it’s all right this is not my favorite bit of path uneven i can’t see where there’s like grooves in the ground where I’m going to go flying can’t believe it’s a summer at like 3:30 or 3:40 in the afternoon another drinking water tap drinking water hopefully it works this time let’s have a look it’s not running very much though is it enjoy the uh scoop hammers what’s also known as Scotsman’s knob oh yeah thanks thanks so hard to ride in this looks like it’d be easy to ride but seriously and then you got like the ruts either side when they’re really deep god I wish there was some hot dog fans here got no food until tomorrow all right all right thank you oh you all right there you go all right so up ahead is Lord Wantage’s Lord Wantage Monument um built on some kind of ancient mound apparently introduce some olivement my lord right guys looks like I’m going to have to camp at my least favorite camping spot it’s a good camping spot just had a really odd experience there i was camping there oh I was camping there was I doing the Ridgeway i’m not sure but anyway I was camping there the night and uh heard footsteps and someone tried to unzip my tent i said “Who’s that?” Then I heard the footsteps going way years ago um I was camping in the trees here and heard the Land Rover pull off and I heard these footsteps come to my tent in the tent unzip and I quickly look out and said who is there look out the tent it’s a woman run back to her Land Rover and they drove on so yeah not a favorite spot of mine to camp but find anywhere else so can’t wait till the morning i report I’ll report back in the morning if I’m still alive good morning folks but this is where I camped last night there’s my bike just getting ready to take the tent down um yeah I told you about the story of um when um I camped here didn’t know I already told you about that yeah um I had a really good sleep actually it rained quite a bit in the night tent didn’t leak tent’s good i’ve just packed away so put my sleeping bag away already not going to bother doing any time lapses i’m too knackered to do that anyway I’m going to get the tent down and get on my way on our way not far to go now the rocky So this way and it road thanks for that far from Goring now and there’s a Tesco’s extra there where I’m going to get some food i haven’t had anything to eat this morning or last night had some at midday because um because of that organic uh van that was at the side of the Ridgeway but that that’s it as a drink but not coffee and I need food badly oh yeah small place across the river tops what happened there oh [Music] [Applause] not the best place for that to happen is it here we go coming up to the bridge across uh Rivers and I believe there’s a Tesco’s here somewhere we’re coming into Gory oh we’re in Gory i saw a Goring sign the first bridge yeah it’s the we got like we on the T so it’s like split into two i love this old uh post office building here sure tesco is up here somewhere got to find that get some food and we’ll get on our way to uh finish the trail in Reading it’s not there i can’t remember it having this many shops train station down there as well but I’m off to Reading ah bike racks as well cool [Music] [Music] club card accepted we’ll need to approve this item when you pay please continue payment accepted thanks for shopping at Tesco [Music] it’s not that far it’s less than top 20 kilometers to reading another private lane sign I saw for the temp’s path down here which is also a national trail some of the temps paths really good some of it’s not great some of it’s prone to flooding certain times of year there’s some really expensive houses along the temps but it’s like I don’t understand why you’d want to live alongside a place that floods it’s like a status symbol i guess the temps isn’t it show off to your other rich friends must be i wonder what that hill over there’s called so at some point I expect we see the temp’s path actually you know what i could have I could have camped down here couldn’t I could have carried on but to be honest I was knackered and my camping spot wasn’t so bad after all not like the previous experience I had there thankfully oh I can see a pill box looks like someone’s uh had a bit of party down here yeah unfortunately I don’t have enough room in my bag to carry all that stuff and I don’t know if there’s any needles and stuff in there it’s a shame hopefully someone comes along who’s local picks it up yeah I’m not going to even go in there it looks a bit of a state it’s a shame this is our heritage guys should be looking after it and there signs all along here saying private woodland keep out please don’t sell off our woodlands it’s for everybody what do you guys reckon woodland should be for everybody right or do you think people should be able to buy it and not let other people enjoy the woodland finland’s people wanting to live in the woods i’d love to but do you have a right to stop people enjoying the woods cuz if they sell off all once all the woodlands been sold off only the people who own woodland can enjoy the woods and that’s lot who don’t who don’t own our own woods will never enjoy them if that makes sense this is a lovely little path along here but it’s incredibly incredibly slippy cuz it’s been raining so I got to ride with caution some of these river paths are really narrow so it’s not been too bad so far it’s a massive drop down there at the moment as you know what river paths are like they tend to go up high above the river often and narrow like I said okay we’re still on the temp’s path on this bit but uh it’s heading away from the actual river temps on this bit heading down into this little uh settlement village and then after that village it will be heading into the suburbs of Reading and into uh Reading City Center uh I started the trail at the train station in Reading and that’s where I am heading to and thankfully I was a bit worried the whole trip the trains are not on strike today um I think they might have been yesterday so it was a bit touch and go to whether what day I was going to get here whether the trains would be running or not it’s very frustrating but luckily according to my according to the internet they’re running today so let’s hope that’s right oh my god I saw this on Wilman’s uh video of uh Alfred the Alfred way in fact it was his video that got me interested in uh doing this uh this trail probably in these videos probably got me interested in thinking oh yeah do some bike bike trails but yeah I remember this bit in his video saying that it was too steep to ride down and he is definitely not wrong there definitely not with this bike anyway and the load I’m carrying is pretty damn steep and it’s wet so would not be surprised if I slip up holy moly that is steep what I’ve got to go up now is like oh my god there’s been a lot of steep bits ah oh come on this is going to be a slow process oh thankfully they got these steps to make it easy pushing the bike up other side it wasn’t It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be coming up there well what was more hard was to try to get my bike to stay still without it going down the hill i did put it just there but it decided to roll down to there and hit hit there so hopefully my bike is still okay the handlebars are still okay this app drives me nuts right okay so this is the village pointless me trying and I don’t need my glasses for riding the bike it’s just for reading so it’s like I can’t keep putting while I’m riding put my glasses on take them off it’s just not practical looking for adventure whatever comes our way it’s a GMO genetically modified food free zone to the highway looking for adventure so this is the place I’ve just been through you can uh read some information about it there just come through those gates there so it looks like I might be nicely in time for the train although I missed the first cheap train would have got that if I’d got up a little bit earlier this morning but I thought I’d be too early for the Tesco’s opening this morning in uh Goring i actually got there I think at 7:30 or something like that and it opened at 7:00 so I could have got up earlier i don’t want to get wet feet oh is there anyone this place it’s a little hamlet I think oh it’s got a church very beautiful it’s on the 10th so it’s going to be super duper expensive this place oh go the bloody wrong way bring this way not so many camels on the way actually reading festival deliveries so when you go to your Reading Festival if you still go to festivals I I I went to Reading years and years ago quite a few times uh I believe that’s a camping field there and down there definitely is just the next field just down there so folks I’m actually going alongside the reading where the Reading Festival is going to be held at the end of this this month August mid August at the moment so the end of August this place will be very noisy very crowded i don’t think anyone’s going to be walking down here unless they’re trying to get in free i’m not sure if you’d be able to get in free down here not Do you know what i don’t give a if you want to get him free it’s up to you are not condoning any uh criminal behavior but we used to get him free to uh Glastonbury and that was that was the fun part of it to be honest the rest of it I don’t remember cuz I was wasted but uh the getting in bit was definitely the fun bit should say I’ve also got into the uh reading festival a few times for free in the past long long time ago wearing um high viz uh vest just walking through the entrance they’re probably a bit more secure these days I would think but yeah with a is it 2 lers of cider down the bottom of me trouser leg cuz you weren’t allowed to I don’t think you were allowed to bring booze in So it’s funny thinking about it i used to get in free to basically all the festivals I went to never used to I have paid for festivals but a lot yeah just through the gate just using some wise words and uh or over fence under fence you name it or even I don’t know buying a wristband off somebody for a fiverr i think I did that one year for Glastonbury or perhaps at Reading as well but yeah I don’t know if I think I might have got over the fence at Red once but it it was definitely a lot more harder to get him free than um last from what I remember i should say we’re not we’re not even on the temp’s path now and on this road for a while now and to be honest even when I was on the temp’s path I didn’t even see the temps just a little bit through the trees just got a glimpse of the temps through someone’s garden oh I can see it now and now ladies and gentlemen we are at the temps actually can finally see it and here we are Reading Train Station from the other side okay guys actually did it 400 around 400 kilometers I think and um over 300 me 3,000 m ascent and over 3,000 m descent thanks for watching please subscribe click the notification button let me know in the comments what you think and see you next time thank you 36