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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.

Saturday 20 May 2017

Thame Circular - a sea of buttercups (hopefully...)

SWC walk 190 - Thame Circular
Length: 15.3km (9.5 miles) or 21km (13 miles)
Toughness: 1 out of 10 (3 out of 10 longer walk)

10.05 (Banbury) train from Marylebone to Haddenham and Thame Parkway, arriving 10.40.

Go very quickly to the adjacent bus stop (on the same side of the station, just by the exit) for the 10.43 bus to Thame (number 280, destination Oxford), arriving 10.55. This connection worked last year: if you miss the bus, the next one is in 20 minutes.

Buy a day return to Haddenham and Thame Parkway, and a return on the bus if that is cheaper than two singles

For walk directions click here: for GPX file click here.

This very gentle (almost flat) walk made a glorious outing this time last year with great golden acres of buttercups (see photo) and cow parsley turning every verge white. I realise that travel north of London puts some off, so I have made the train as late as possible.

Since I suspect all the speedy walkers will be off in Scotland, I also propose that we do the very pleasant shorter version of this walk (9.5 miles), which has a lovely pub - the Old Fisherman in Shabbington - as its lunch stop. This is 5.9 miles into the walk and is a popular place, but serves food all afternoon, so arriving towards the end of lunchtime, as we probably will do, might not be a bad idea.

Doing the shorter walk also gives you time to appreciate the pretty market town of Thame, which is the start and finish of this walk. This has some nice tea rooms and is worth a wander.

Buses back to Haddenham and Thame Parkway go at 18, 38 and 58 past till 18.38, then at 19.0219.32, 20.02, 20.32 (etc: there are later buses). Note that the 38 past bus does not have a train connection, however: the 18 past connect to 38 past trains, while the 58 past connects to 13 past trains. The 19.02 and 20.02 have a tight connection to a 13 past train, while the 19.32 and 20.32 have an even tighter one to the 41 past.
T=3.190


5 comments:

Ian T said...

N=11 w=sunny-cloudy-light-shower-sunny-cloudy-etc Buttercups a-plenty. Cow parsley, too. Most went for the short walk. Directions could do with at least one tweak, if only for my sake. I spent a good half-hour near Old Paddock wood, backwards and forwards, thinking I was lost when I wasn’t. The Old Fisherman was friendly (it's a pub, not a wierdo!) Can’t comment on the food – I didn’t have any. And the pint of Abbot I galumphed down hardly touched the sides. A field near the end had small coppers flitting around in it (butterflies ,not diminutive policemen). Got to Thame just too late for the xx:18. It started raining heavily, but, luckily, there was a Sainsbury’s, a bus shelter, and H&T has a large waiting room on the London bound platform .

Walker said...

Sainsbury's??? Rumsey's! Chocolate cake!!

Ian T said...

I wasnt in cake tea or chocolate mode, I was in "get yourself home" mode

Walker said...

Also saw the small coppers. Very exciting to see one, let alone so many.

Ian T said...

Yes very colourful if small, Thought they were some sort of day-flying moth at first.