T=2.8.b Book 2 Walk 8b - Henley to Marlow
Length: 16.2km (10 miles) or 14.1km (8.8 miles)
Toughness: 5 out of 10 - three short but steep climbs
9.42 train from Paddington (9.50 Ealing Broadway) to Twyford, changing there (arrive 10.40, depart 10.50) for Henley, arriving 11.02
Buy a day return to Henley-on-Thames, which will usually be accepted for return from Marlow.
Walk directions - you will need both Book 2 walk 7 - click here - and Book 2 walk 8 - click here
This composite walk starts with the morning of Book 2, walk 7 Henley via Hambleden - a pleasant route along the banks of the Thames and over a low range of wooded hill which you follow as far as lunch in the cosy Stag and Huntsman in Hambleden.
There is a 2.1km/1.2 mile short cut on this route if you want to take it - this is reduces the total walk length to 14.1km/8.8 miles
The Stag & Huntstman is quite a busy and popular pub, so it is not a bad idea to ring and book a table when you set out. (We have always managed to squeeze into it somehow, however.) You should get there about 1pm, or 12.30pm if you take the short cut.
In the afternoon you could of course continue with walk 7 back to Henley (4.3 miles after lunch), but a nicely contrasting route is to switch to Book 2 Walk 8 Marlow Circular from point [6] onwards for a five mile walk across the wooded hills to Marlow, which has lots of cheerful tea options.
Trains back from Marlow are at 06 past the hour.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
N=6 on this walk and the weather=grey-but-dry
We took the easterly side of the river (river on our left) out of Henley to avoid the swamp land on the other side and it was mainly a tarmac surface all the way in the morning . The weir that we crossed on route is excellent but after discussing it amongst ourselves we realised that no one knew why it exists - something to Google when we got back. Just looked it up Jerome K Jerome used to live nearby as did his newsagent Mr W H Smith
Before lunch in Hambledon we wandered around a covered Christmas market in the school hall - we all had a nose but none of us put our hands in our pockets. The home made gifts seemed to lack inspiration and the free range meat was far more expensive than from https://thefoodassembly.com/en
Lunch was had by all 6 in The Stag and Huntsman with two of us enjoying an excellent stuffed breast of pheasant.
Rumour has it that one of the walkers commented shortly after lunch how surprisingly unmuddy the day was so that put the carbosh on such pleasant walking surfaces .
The afternoon was horrendously slippery and muddy
There was a lot of banging going on (country sports?) as we approached Heath Wood but thankfully it was all finished by the time that we got there with just a lot of people mainly wearing tweed with guns wandering off looking sheepish and piles of dead birds - carnage. Seeing as I had had pheasant for lunch my feelings were mixed.
The 3 steep hills became 4 due to us not paying attention to the directions and a total walk of 9.6 miles so tea in Marlow was well deserved but somewhat disappointing due to slow service meaning that we had to rush it - only one train an hour and we didn't want to miss it
Lovely crowd and lovely day
Post a Comment