White Horse of Uffington

Tuesday was just grand. After breakfast in hall, Megg, Casey, Caitlin and I took a taxi from Wadham right to the base of White Horse Hill. Our cab driver's name was Richard, and he prefers the movie Babe with all the sheep over the Toy Story series. We had to drive about 45 minutes to Uffington, again one of those small, isolated places where you really realize you're in England. It was a misty day, but almost perfect for seeing the White Horse, and the sun broke through the clouds toward the end. The White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure from roughly the Bronze Age, the design of a horse cut into the ground and laid with chalk. No one knows its true purpose but it is thought to be symbolic of identity and/or carry religious value. It is the oldest chalk figure in the Vale of White Horse, where there are many other chalk figures to be found!

We took the foot path from the parking area, and walked through the hills of grazing sheep(adorable ones with black faces and white bodies), and the view was great. You could see for miles out over England, and there was a map to demonstrate what was seen in the view. Taking photos couldn't replicate what we saw, but it was beautiful. We had a look at the White Horse from several angels. It was so strange and surreal to be there standing next to it in the grass; having only seen it in pictures the distance was certainly minimized. So we went right up to the horse on the hill and walked among the carved out shapes, put our hands in the chalk, enjoyed the view...

Behind the White Horse hill we walked up another hill to the remains of Uffington Castle, from about 300Bc! It was a huge circular foundation of where a castle would have been- only just grass now and a bit of stone that can be seen under the grass. You can see the form of it underneath, the empty space and the gray sky made it eerie and exciting. Many more of the black and white sheep were grazing there, and a few brown ones. They stood on the castle mounds against the horizon and we stepped through their poop. Awesome! Also near the White Horse is Dragon Hill, where a legendary dragon was slain by Saint George. It was a hill at the base of the White Horse that had a flattened top- it was quite a hike downwards- but Megg and I remembered the technique we learned in Nicaragua, take steps sideways to make it down without falling! This was one of my favoriate excursions on the trip, it is so difficult to replicate.

On our way back to the parking lot, we found that our taxi driver, Richard decided to stay and wait for us. In all his time spent in Oxford he had never been to the White Horse, so he had a look around. He didn't even charge us extra for anything, just a really nice English man.

Cheerio