3 Men on a walk 2017: Boys walking week to Marlborough

Along the White Horse way

On the hottest day since 1987 - 34 deg C - we had to take a 10 mile walk! As Trevor said most 70 year olds would be sitting in the shade in a care home with a cold beer in one hand and a copy of Playboy in the other so we must be getting twinges of Dementia to go out and walk in this heat.

We had a small section of shade as we walked through "West Woods" but for most of the walk we had burning sun and had to search for shade every 30 mins or so to take rests. In the end we cut a mile or so from our planned route in order to complete it earlier and get refreshment back in Marlborough. Cold Coke never tasted so good.

Anyway - this was a very scenic walk that took us along another marked trail called "The White Horse Way". This led us out of Marlborough and through West Woods and up to Huish Hill. Now we approached the hill from its lee side and from the top of the ridge there is an immensely steep downhill drop which fortunately we didn't have to take.

From here we picked up the Mid-Wilts way which took us westward along the top of the ridge for about 4 miles, giving us tremendous views. We could have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been 34 deg C and we were on a ridge with no shade!

By the time we got to Knap Hill we decided that we needed a small "Course Correction" before we wilted and we turned up the "Ridgeway" trail northwards back to West Overton which cut about 1.5 miles from our intended route. On the way at East Kennet we came across another small stone circle - more evidence of the amazing history of this region.