I will add that groupsave tickets are available for this journey. This requires at least 3 people to travel on the same train outbound and return. These tickets provide a 1/3 discount and do not require splitting the ticket or committing to a specific train. The return fare looks to be £32. If anyone is interested, I will plan to be at the ticket office by 10:10 AM.

Hi Karen, I'm planning on doing thus walk on Sunday. Will meet you at the ticket office. Heidi

Hi, I’d like to join as well. See you at the ticket office at 10.10. Jenni

I've always maintained that this was, pound for pound and travel time for travel time, one of the best walks on the site, with a massively different landscape just an hour from a London terminus. Well, pound for pound, it was even better today, because we will get most of the ticket price back through Delay Repay!

The train departed on time but stopped completely just after passing Ealing Broadway. Some time passed before we were told that a defective train ahead was blocking the line. As a non-expert, any of three things could happen next: somehow the defective train gets restarted, a loco conveniently located somewhere on this mega-important stretch of railway out of London tows the stricken train out of harm's way, or we reverse to a point where we can cross onto another line and divert past that stricken train. But for 45 minutes nothing at all happened.

Then we saw the driver walking through the train and soon-ish starting the journey back towards London, but not to a crossover point (there may not be any between Ealing and P'ton), but all the way back onto a platform at Paddington.

The following opening of the doors and re-doing of the dispatch process took some time and gave 3 SWCers in our carriage an excuse to de-train and go home, citing evening appointments and/or work prep pressures. There may have been others in other carriages, we will never know.

Me and the others in my carriage stoically persevered through this and several further delays, to finally arrive at Pewsey 1 3/4 hours behind schedule (some of us had had their picnic lunch on the train). The sun was shining but there was certainly a cold wind about.

I keep the rest short: route as glorious as ever; mud not an issue really; bluebells on the ridge: magnificent, especially in Withy Copse (punctuated with celandines and stitchwort) and in Gopher Wood (a blue carpet); wildlife: a hare and a heron; views: fantastic.

With the 105 minute delay to our start, we knew that catching the 19.01 train would be touch-and-go (and the one after was 3 hours later), so after passing the Chalk Horse Figure and Walkers Hill, we decided to cut across to the return route of the other Pewsey walk, which is shorter from there to town. That left enough time for a drink at The Waterfront Bar while watching the penalty shootout in the FA Cup Semi before comfortably catching the train (which was also delayed, of course, but only by 22 minutes).

4 sunny with a strong cold wind

I’ll be driving so I will meet you at the station. Kasia

10 off the on-time train plus 1 car driver, making 11 walkers in weather that was sunny with a bracing wind . Many of the group I had never seen before or not for a long time, but no one was a SWC first-timer. All opted for the 26 km version.

The 'bluebell path' was the only muddy bit, where one had to watch each step to not start sliding along, further complicated by the odd fallen tree, else the going was easy and on firm ground. The cold wind made for excellent far views, and the faraway haze added to the scenery, as it accentuated the rolling hills in the distance. Cold was the wind, but not cold enough to not sit down for the picnic on the edge of the escarpment with fantastic views! Else: just blue skies all day. Most of the group had not been in this part of the world before and seemed to thoroughly enjoy their first experience of it. The historic and pre-historic features certainly kept the interest going, and the late afternoon low sun brilliantly highlighted some of the stunning rounded hills and the Wandsdyke's long curving bank-and-ditch. Silbury Hill and Avebury's church spire were admired some distance away, as was the Alton Barnes White Horse when passed.

We reached the Honeystreet Mill Cafe with 40 minutes to go to closing time (early in comparison with other outings of this walk), and everyone had some well-deserved hot drinks and cakes.

On to the canal stretch, where a fallen tree needed full concentration to avoid slipping into the water. The group started to stretch out a little, as some legs were wearier than others, but at the turnoff for Pewsey village we all waited to re-group. The 19.04 train was still 40 minutes away, so most entered the Waterfront for a drink and some warming up. Back at Paddington just after 8.

Flowers: snowdrops galore, some primroses, many crocuses, daffs still all closed though.

Birds: egret, heron, coots.

Several model plane enthusiasts in a couple of locations on the ridge, but no hang gliders (too windy for them, I guess).

Group Cohesion Rating: 9/10.

Walk Experience Rating: 10/10

Bit of a disaster, the train is sold out for booking online.

You can get first class tickets only on 10.35 train, Gavin

Yes and No.

As this train is a Long-Distance Service, seat reservations are required during Covid-times, and GWR only releases a fraction of the seats on each train for that. We had the same thing on the Hanborough - Charlbury walk on 17 April. Punters who just walked up to the station on the day and bought from the machines reported no problems. But, of course I can't guarantee that the same thing will be true this Saturday.

So, if you are concerned, you could book yourself a PAD - Newbury return (booking onto the 10.08 departure, arrives 10.58), and a separate Newbury - Pewsey return. The Newbury - Pewsey tickets are still bookable for the posted trains, certainly for the 19.26 from Pewsey, which is the train anyone walking the full walk will be on.

How do I know? I have just done that.

I should add, it is just the morning train that is full.

Yes Gavin you are right only first class ticket for 10.35. So if i am attending I will be taking the 08.35 train as I will much slower than usual. May struggle with the heat. But since I have done this walk before i am willing to have a go. So might see you all.

Monica.

I would prefer the 08.35 train and will try and catch it.

Mind you, it might be cancelled at the last moment. But then so might the 10.35.

Austen

I'm in Pewsey now at 4.30pm on Friday. In the Royal Oak. If anyone wants to start the walk now!

Train that said it was sold out. Was nearly empty.

Yes, I might join earlier walk.

It's very hot here at 7pm, so can slow down a bit tomorrow.

All boundary 6 tickets to Newbury or Pewsey are not available online so I shall go early to Paddington and see if I can get the ticket and if not successful will do walk somewhere. I am still aiming for 08.35 train. Hope to see you guys after a long absence. Monica.

No, as first stop is outside boundary zone 6, no discounts. Only third off discounts.

4 of us started at 9.40 from Pewsey Station

4 off the early train, was it? My usually 110%-reliable embedded reporter tells me it was 5 (4 off the train + 1 overnighter), and he's given me their names for the (how will we miss it?) track-and-trace email. So, let's go with 5, shall we?

As suspected, the ticket machines at Paddington (and presumably at all other London terminals) DO indeed dispense Day Return tickets to places like Pewsey, even if the seats are 'fully booked' by online bookings. So, no cause for alarm or any danger of not getting on the train.

2 of us had arrived early and/or had booked seats on the 10.07 to Newbury anyway, just in case, so we took that train and had time in Newbury to fetch a coffee and a pastry, before getting on the indeed relatively busy (for Covid times) but still not even half-full Paignton train. 1 other was already on the train, and we were met at Pewsey by 2 car drivers, i.e.: 5 late starters and 10 in total.

Views: terrific. Heat: quite bearable, as on the Downs there was a breeze, and along the canal we were mostly in the shade. We had a few more breaks than usual and had picnic under a tree right on the escarpment, with views of Huish House's pagoda below. Later, Silbury Hill seemed oh so near (the splendid far views), Milk Hill was w/o any hang gliders, and the Alton Barnes White Horse looked a bit overgrown. Some tlc needed there. Because of the extra breaks and a general unrushed pace, we passed the Honeystreet Mill Cafe just after it had closed, and gave the Barge Inn a miss as well.

On to Pewsey, where most of my group turned into the Waterside Inn, while I text-checked the other 'tea' options in town, ending in the Royal Oak for a swift pint and a half.

Delayed 19.26 train for us (minus the car drivers, plus the overnighter). As per the embedded reporter, 2 of the 5 early walkers took shortcut 2, and 1 even took both shortcuts. All of those (bar the overnighter) made the 17.06 train quite comfortably.

Flora and fauna spotted: marbled whites, meadow brown, red admiral, gatekeepers, pyramid orchids, cows, sheep, a heron, plenty other birds. warm with a breeze

oh, how could I forget: there also were ringlets, small tortoise shells and small heath butterflies

I can't find your train.....

Neither can I. Thanks for the headsup.

GWR seem to have 'thinned out' the timetable, with a few days to go (no wonder their trains are 'full' if they run only a skeleton schedule, and with shorter units as well, as they did yesterday on the Hanborough walk).

Their 'Amended Timetable' valid 12 April - 15 May, available on gwr.com, shows all the trains that should run and were still showing as running when I posted this walk. But we are now seemingly left with the 08.35 departure and the earliest return being the 19.23, which is way too much time in Pewsey for doing the walk, so I will have to cancel and post a new one. C'est la vie...

Message to the webmaster: following the link on the walk's webpage to the National Rail schedule still shows the train as running (plus plenty of others that are actually not now running...

In a final (?) irony, Journey Planner today is showing more trains to and from Pewsey on Saturday. Not the 10.35, but an 11.03. But one can't reserve a ticket on it. Could play the system by going to Reading 10 minutes earlier (bookable) and boarding the train there (bookable), but this is now officially getting too complicated. Probably best to avoid GWR trains for the time being. They seem to be in a right mess.

New walk post coming up shortly...

Two advance singles BZ6-Pewsey with SRC Outbound £7.60

Return (19.29 allowing time for dinner) £6.25

17 walkers off the train, incl. 2 first-timers attracted to the SWC/this walk through our Meetup feed, in sunny warm with a cooling breeze weather. 2 took both shortcuts, 1 just the afternoon one, the rest walked the main walk route.

The last two outings of this walk had seen snow drifts (03/18) and torrential rain (05/16), so this was the day to average out the longterm trend, as it was a perfect day for walking. The train was packed with staycationers, but most if not all of us had reservations, and the rest found seats. After ascending the ridge, we had bright yellow rape oilseed fields below (although later others were still part-green), large pastures swathed in dandelions, an alley of celandines and several impressive bluebell woods, with carpets of healthy looking tall bluebells, unlike the wilting sorry ones I had seen in the Southeast over the last few walks. Maybe they had more rain out there? Later we had verges of white bluebells and even some very purple looking ones (but were they bluebells, asks the amateur?). The gorse was in bloom, the views were far, the breeze cooled us down a wee bit.

Picnic was had where we caught up with the two morning shortcutters, on a grass bank on the ridge. Skylarks were larking, later a paraglider was seen. The Iron Age and other prehistoric features were admired, all the optional tops were ascended without prompting (the first group to do that) and back in the Vale the Saxon Church and the 1,700 years old yew tree at Alton Priors were viewed.

We got to the Honeystreet Mill Cafe in good time before they closed, and apart from the staff being a bit rushed off their feet at the end of a busy day, this is an impressive cafe, large and with good outdoor space by the canal and a decent selection of cakes, ice cream and drinks (even some local ales).

The long canal ending came in handy as the sun had taken its toll, and the various bits of the group got to Pewsey with about an hour to spare before the 19.29 train. The Royal Oak and the Shed Alehouse were the preferred outlets to quench the inevitable thirst. Some got reinforcements for the train journey home from the SPAR next door to the Shed...

A rather faultless day.

What a day! You wait for years for a snowy walk, and here we finally got one.

From the train window (only slightly delayed), the hills didn't look to have that much snow cover at all, but then we encountered some knee-deep snow drifts on the first farm track beyond the Kennet & Avon Canal. Energy-sapping fun.

Up onto the ridge (half went left for the short walk, the other half right for the full walk) with the sun now out and - together with a cold but not uncomfortable breeze - giving us the best winter walk scenario. As we turned west along the ridge (after passing through some lovely woods) there was another snow drift-heavy farm track, this time more than knee-deep, so much so that the wellie-equipped walker suffered some snow ingress. The weather stayed dry until about 13.30, when we stopped for our picnic lunch (we had seen the short walkers disappear from the spot as we arrived). From then on it was more typical winter weather: passing clouds with showers coming down left and right, and often also where we were. The showers being rain and/or hail, often followed by some stunning rainbows (one of them the longest lasting and most complete and vivid I have ever seen).

We eventually caught the shortcutters just where the afternoon shortcut branched off from the main walk, and all of them took that shortcut. On up to the Wansdyke and around back into Pewsey Downs Nature Reserve and to Milk Hill, a truely stunning Down. Alton Barnes White Horse was completely covered in snow, so we just had to imagine it's shape based on the fence surrounding it.

A holloway on the descent to Alton Priors was then full of snow to man-height, so we circumvented it along a field boundary, before checking out the Saxon Church. With the cafe in Honeystreet shut, we had planned on popping in to the pub there for refreshments, alas it is now shut as well (and as the short walkers found out from the taxi driver they had ordered to pick them up there: it is shut for good, to be developed into housing).

We then embarked on the 'easy' finish along the canal back to Pewsey, only to be surprised to find [A] the canal largely frozen (frozen enough to have swans standing on the ice w/o breaking through) and [B] lots of snow drifts along the northerly embankment, at one point about a metre deep and necessitating a diversion over barbed wire into a field...

We got to Pewsey with enough time before the 18.13 train (the shortcutters had taken the [delayed] 16.11) to have a drink at The Waterfront Inn, and then - as the train was delayed by 45 minutes as well - another one at The Royal Oak.

Buffet Car on the train, lots of seats and a working heating system. A well deserved finish to an extraordinary day in Wiltshire. 8 sunny initially then overcast with rain and hail showers .

Further online research regarding The Barge Inn reveals that the lease had been sold in 2016 and the new owners had embarked on a refurbisment and repositioning of the pub (more serious food offerings, less hippy-esk focus on crop circles). But a subsequent planning permission to turn a neighbouring barn into housing and the pub into a wine bar/restaurant was turned down in Dec 2017, so they have now shut the (still loss-making) pub and put if up for sale. There is a local initiative to find the funds to buy it for the community and preserve it as a pub.

Magnificent, inspiring report. Well done all who walked.

Could not ONE of the bank holiday walks been under 13 miles, for those who want a more relaxing day out?

To quote the text of the posting: "Two Shortcuts are possible: they reduce the walk by 3.5 km (2.1 mi) or 3.4 km (2.1 mi) and the rating to 6/10; or to 5/10 when walking both Shortcuts (19.2 km/305m height gain)." How is that not below 13 miles? Puzzled...

AND with a very late start! How is that NOT a relaxing day out? Even more puzzled...

There are lots of people who want the security of walkng within a group and are not confident about tackling a short cut on their own. Last week one of the attendees for the Ullapool trip had just bought a compass but needed to be shown how to use it! This army range walk is a complete nightmare if you don't have a compass and map to back up the walk directions as there is no signage to guide you. And yes lots of people prefer shorter organised walks at a relaxed pace that they can tackle with friends or with physical stamina issues!

very brave of you to promote a walk with no bluebells and no lunch pub on a may bank holiday monday. could we not at least have some anemones to feed the soul. ta very much

Well... of course I can't guarantee that there won't be the odd blue-ish bell or wood-ish anemone, as there are some small stretches of woodland en route, but they certainly aren't the main draw of this outing.

'tis a walk for the - often very vocal - army of long sleepers/extended breakfasters (this late train only runs on Sundays/Bank Holidays, and I don't have slots on Sundays), for the picnicers, the far viewers and the walkers. Just a good walk, in stunning, remote countryside, with plenty of refreshment options late on. That's all there is to it. But no less than that.

9 w= selection of all four seasons including high winds and torrential rain on the ridge. A cracking day despite some afore-mentioned awful weather. loads of bluebells. Strenuous but not lethal hilly bits and some nice views. All washed down with pre-walk alcohol, picnic lunch, good cake, beer and picnic on train home

Intend going.

8 overcast +and+dry+and+pleasantly cool

8 off the train at Pewsey. One was along for a short walk and parted ways with us a couple of hours into the walk to catch an early afternoon train to London. This is a very nice walk with lots of interesting ancient features and fine views. In my opinion, you get a lot of great views for what felt like not too much effort, with the steepest climb early on in the walk. I found the section through Pewsey Downs National Reserve really lovely.

Picnic lunch for 4 and 3 for lunch at The Barge Inn where the food was decent. Unfortunately, but not a surprise given the amount of paranormal activity in the area, one walker disappeared at this point. Remaining 6 backtracked to the Honeystreet Cafe for very nice cake and tea (worth doing) and then took it easy on the final stretch along the canal. As we had lots of time, stopped for refreshments at the Golden Swan in Wilcot (320m off-route). Very pleasant along the canal with the leaves on the trees beginning to turn colour and nice reflections in the still water.

The group enjoyed a few scoops of ale and cider at the Shed Alehouse (worth visiting) in Pewsey. Followed by further refreshments at the Crown Inn. Caught the 20:36 back to London. A very good walk that was worth the trip from London and the early start. Recommended.

Argh. Messed up the weather report.

overcast and dry and pleasantly cool

The otherworldly artefact spotted in a field near Oare Hill can be located by the shadow it casts in this aerial view. It does not however appear on any official maps. An extensive search of the internet has revealed that Robert Hiscox privately commissioned a "millennium arch" from sculptor and "environmentalist" Andy Goldsworthy - reputedly made from 90 tonnes of sandstone, with half of it constructed in 1999 and the other half in 2000. The purpose of the structure is unknown.

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