Extra Walk 242 – Cholsey to Goring via Wallingford
Length: 20.5 km (12.7 miles). Toughness: 4/10
10:00 Weston-super-Mare train from Paddington, changing at Reading for the Oxford train (arr 10:34, dep 10:45), arriving Cholsey at 11:04. If you get to Paddington early you can take the same Oxford train at 09:45 (Ealing Broadway 09:53) and not need to change. Buy a day return to Cholsey.
Trains back from Goring & Streatley are hourly at 24 minutes past. You can save up to half an hour by changing at Reading for a non-stop train to Paddington.
This new walk had a well-attended début on a hot Saturday in August last year, with the feedback suggesting its wildflower meadows beside the Thames would be particularly attractive in late spring. A relatively short stretch along the Thames Path brings you to the pretty town of Wallingford and a choice of pubs for lunch. The (longer) afternoon is across gently rolling fields in the south Oxfordshire countryside and you'll probably appreciate the chance to break for refreshment in South Stoke, 3.5 km before the finish.
There are some good pubs in Goring if you have time to kill before your train, or you could even take up the walk author's suggestion of a 7 km extension along the Thames Path to Whitchurch and Pangbourne (closer to London, so a Cholsey ticket is valid). There are no written directions but the route is well-waymarked and some of it will be familiar from other club walks in the area.
For more information about the walk and a link to the Directions, OS Map, etc, go to the Extra Walk 242 page. T=swc.242
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2 comments:
Lovely cafe on the way to the station past the pub on the opposite side. Open til five. Good cakes!
I was told by someone who did this walk and also the Sandy walk check on Bank Holiday Monday that there were n=7 on this walk. Some good displays of poppies on the Thames Path stretch to Wallingford.
A word of warning: don't be tempted to miss out lunch in Wallingford. This group did and continued on to the Perch and Pike pub in South Stoke which they reached at 2.35pm, 5 mins after they had stopped serving lunch. The pub however did rustle up some chips for them.
A strong group decided to continue walking in the lovely weather all the way to Pangbourne.
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