Pete's Walks - Wigginton, Wendover Woods and St Leonards (page 3 of 5)
About a mile from the visitor centre, a waymarked post indicated where another path went left. I followed this through the trees, interested to see exactly where it took me as I was heading for one of the three areas where I thought the map differed from the paths on the ground when I did this walk before. After a while, the path turned left, north-eastwards, and started going uphill. I could see through the trees on my right that there was a 'hollow way' on the edge of the wood, which I expected the path to join (that's what the map seems to indicate). In fact the path continued up to the top of the hill, soon running along the embankment on this side of the hollow way. At the top of the hill, I came to a path junction, where I turned right and immediately came to another path junction. I could have gone straight on here, along the top of the hill, but chose to turn right and join the Ridgeway national trail, which followed a bridleway down the 'hollow way'. Towards the bottom of the slope, I followed the Ridgeway as it turned left (I now rejoined the route I'd taken last time - then I'd gone further down the hollow way and turned right), climbing back uphill to rejoin the path along the top of the hill.
Start of the path going east in Wendover Woods
The path going east in Wendover Woods
The path going east in Wendover Woods
The hollow way descending to The Hale
The Hale, from where I left the hollow way
The path rising back up from the hollow way to the Ridgeway national trail
The Ridgeway now continued south a short distance, before crossing Hale Lane, and then continuing through further woods south-westwards. This was easy walking, as the well-surfaced path followed the top of a wooded escarpment for about a mile. At some point I went from Hale Wood to Barn Wood, where (a bit further on than I remembered) a wooden finger post indicated where I wanted to turn left. This new path went a short distance up to the top of the hill, before turning left on a wide track.
The Ridgeway, approaching Hale Lane
The Ridgeway, going southwest through Hale Wood
The Ridgeway, going southwest through Hale Wood
The Ridgeway, going southwest through Hale Wood
The Ridgeway, going southwest through Hale Wood
The Ridgeway, going south through Barn Wood
Approaching the path junction where I turned left to leave the Ridgeway, in Barn Wood
The path going south from the Ridgeway in Barn Wood
The path continuing eastwards in Barn Wood