Backpacking on The Ridgeway – From Goring to Wallingford

The Ridgeway is an 87 mile National Trail, which is said to be the oldest road in Britain.

Before we went, I searched for pictures of the Ridgeway but couldn’t find many pretty ones. So I thought, there will be some soon when we come back. But clearly the section we chose was not the most exciting one. There are still a lack of beautiful pictures of the Ridgeway online I’m afraid.

We arrived on the Ridgeway at Goring and after two and a half days finished in Princes Risborough. There wasn’t anything specific we wanted to see in Princes Risborough. It was just that it was starting to rain and there was a very nice lady prepared to pick us up.

Many cottages in Goring and along the way were very dainty and idyllic, popping right out from a story book. The canal was a typical Southern England scene too.

Wisteria seemed to be very much at home here.

We walked along River Thames. It was tranquil, very different to its grandeur when it passes Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

The campsite we stayed at for the first night was called Bridge Villa. It had the best facilities you could imagine, new and clean showers + toilet rooms with dry floors, sparkling white sinks in the dish washing room with consistent hot water, neat grass (without slugs), fragrant lavenders buzzing with bees. Most importantly, no midges! (After the Kielder camping disaster, midge-free is always an essential criteria for me.)

However, one thing we didn’t like was that the campsite felt a bit like a grassy car park, cramped by many caravans and cars. It was a decent size but obviously very popular. We were probably the only backpackers, surrounded by big vehicles. But nothing could hinder the beauty of a double rainbow and a gorgeous sunset.

We upgraded our camping gear slightly before this trip. The tent was a lot more roomy – I could sit up straight now. My husband also got a set of cooking equipment, which took the camping experience to a whole new level.

While we were faffing about taking the tent down in the morning, a German family invited us over for a piece of birthday day for their young son. We sang happy birthday to him in Chinese. We forgot to ask them about camping in Germany because I’d love to go camping in Europe one day!

The walking mileage of the day was 7.5 miles.

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