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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 29 November 2015

Sunday First Walk - Berkshire Downs



This walk replaces the originally chosen Thamesside walk, whose route is said to be problematic


Extra Walk 17 – Goring Circular
Length: 17.5km (10.9miles). Toughness: 4/10

09:43 Oxford train from Paddington (Ealing Broadway 09:50) arriving Goring & Streatley at 10:56.

Or 10:03 Weston-super-Mare train from Paddington changing at Reading (arr 10:35, dep 10:46) arriving Goring & Streatley at 10:56.

Return trains direct to Paddington are at 15:41, 16:38 and 17:39 (journey time about 1 hour 13 minutes). You’ll get back about 10 minutes sooner by changing at Reading on to a fast train to Paddington.

Initially following the Ridgeway Path up on to the Berkshire Downs, the route later goes through woods and fields with a steep climb and descent towards the end. You'll need to maintain a reasonable pace and not spend too long in the lunch pub in order to complete the walk in daylight. Do take a torch just in case.

Lunch is at The Bell Inn (01635 578272) at Aldworth, which offers simple food (e,g, rolls, soup) and good ales in a traditional pub setting.

You will need to download the Walk Directions

A shorter version of the walk (8 miles) in the form of a sketch map has been produced by the YHA Streatley and can be downloaded here

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no Hammermith & City or Circle line east of Edgware Road this weekend and no District or Circle south from it either, so the only way to Paddington from these directions is by the Bakerloo

PeteB said...

n=5 on this walk; weather was w=overcast-windy-but-dry-and-mild. The somewhat overly pessimistic weather forecast perhaps limited the numbers for this walk or possibly it was due to another Goring walk done on Saturday. A fine winter's walk with a fair bit of tarmac in the short morning stretch but some lovely woodland trails in the afternoon. Just two ate in the Bell and we did not linger too long there as 70% of the walk is after lunch. You have to keep up a reasonable pace too in winter as at the end there is a steep climb followed by an equally steep, long and slippery descent. You certainly do not want to be doing the latter in near darkness.
The wind was challenging at times in exposed areas but really added to the atmosphere of the walk in the woods. (Question: why do so many deciduous shrubs and trees still have green leaves on them at this time of year.??)
We reached Goring around 3.15 and the lure of a 3.41 train proved too strong so we set off to catch this. However we were delighted to discover that en route the Village cafe in Goring High street is now open until 5pm on Sundays - a real bonus for Sunday walkers as Pierreponts cafe is closed then. We got some takeaway teas for the train home. (There was a good selection of cakes too.)This good news for Sunday walkers needs to be added to all Goring-ending walks information.
An excellent day's walking.

Walker said...

Why do some deciduous trees still have green leaves? It goes like this:

For much of October we had relatively sunny weather with cold nights. This was ideal conditions for making many trees turn, and led to a rather early leaf fall at the end of October and in the first week of November.

But some hardy trees, which always hang on to the end of leaf fall, were only partly affected. Ie, they only partly turned their leaves in the cold weather: some remained green.

Since the end of October the weather has been remarkably mild, windy, changeable. The wind has blown off all the turned leaves, but those that have not turned are feeling no particular incentive to do so, since the weather remains mild. There is a precedent for this. In 2005, a warm year, quite a lot of leaves remained green into December.

Leaves you see at this stage are mainly on oak, hazel, perhaps a bit on beech. Also weeping willow which is always late to turn. What is worth noting is that even strong winds, such as we have had in recent days, do not strip all these remaining leaves off. On the whole foliage falls when it is good and ready to, and not before!

For more see

http://nature-and-weather.walkingclub.org.uk/search/label/October-nature

and

http://nature-and-weather.walkingclub.org.uk/search/label/Nature-Blog

Anonymous said...

i did this lovely walk on Sunday returning by a different route. i was very impressed with the Bell Inn which does homemade soup for £3.50 also very well filled rolls £3.50 but doesnt accept credit or other cards.They also specialise in real ales.
At teatime i took tea at the Swan Hotel situated on the Weir and in comfortable relaxed surroundings . it cost £2.30 and is still my favourite teastop in Goring.jfk

PeteB said...

Thanks for the explanation Walker; interesting stuff.