In July 2012, John Jones, singer with multi-award-winning, folk-rock giants Oysterband, walked off stage and out into some of the most glorious landscape in England.

Click here to see the route brochure

Click here to see the gigs that took place along the way, and here for a taste of the music.

With a rucksack, fellow musicians, fans and friends John followed the ancient Ridgeway from Oxfordshire into Wiltshire, taking in White Horses, stone-circles and monuments to a different age, stopping each evening to be reconnected to their instruments and play a full gig to round off the day. Exhilarating walking by day and fun gigs at night…Plenty of people joined John for a walk, to say hello over a pint at lunchtime or evening, or just for a gig. Once up on The Ridgeway the walking was easy under foot and the views tremendous.. a really unique shared experience. John gave a debut to new songs especially written for the occasion.

For this walk, John and his reluctant ramblers walked along the central and western Ridgeway between Nuffield and Avebury and then explored parts of the White Horses Trail in Wiltshire.

Click on the links for details on The Ridgeway Trail and on the White Horses Trail.
also for background information on the White Horses and a Map.

The walk started by the river at Goring-on-Thames on Monday 16th July to make our way to Nettlebed for an evening gig at the Folk Club. Walking continued on the Tuesday and Wednesday along the Ridgeway to Avebury via the ancient White Horse at Uffington. Wednesday evening saw another gig in Marlborough arranged by Marlborough Folk Roots.

On Thursday and Friday we walked along parts of the Wiltshire White Horse Trail via Pewsey and Devizes then on to the Westbury White Horse and arrived at the Village Pump Folk Festival in the afternoon of Saturday 21st July for a ‘Reluctant Ramblers’ set in evening – then stayed on for the full Oysterband set on the Sunday.

Please use the links on the right to see details of the walks for each day.