Length: 18 km (11.3 miles) 4/10
Travel: 1008 from Paddington (Reading 1053) arriving Goring and Streatley 1105. You could make your way to Reading on the Elizabeth line and change there, but it's a slow journey - 0948 from Paddington, 0956 Ealing Broadway. Late starters happy with a tight connection could get the 1023 Paddington to Oxford and change at Reading. Return trains at around 18 and 48 (a few minutes earlier or later after 5 pm).
Lunch: the recommended pub is the Sun Inn, Hill Bottom (0118 9842260), open all day from 12 noon.
Tea: Pierreponts cafe in Goring (01491 874464) is open till 5. According to the walk description it does delicious cakes, light meals and refreshments which you can also take out to eat by the nearby weir on the Thames. There's also the up-market Swan (01491 878800) in Streatley on the other side of the Thames, and a Tesco Express near the station.
For walk directions, map and GPX click here
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2 comments:
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Eight regulars on this fine walk on a day with no rain, and only brief flashes of sunshine. No mud. A lively breeze impelled forward movement. Lots of bluebells, but now a little past their peak, I think. Pleasing as ever to the eye, of course. A couple of fields of buttercups and sight of some gleaming rape in the distance. No butterflies, but a notice on a bus shelter promised other aerial acrobatics. I later saw and heard - up very high in the sky - a would-be Berkshire Red Baron soaring and then plummeting as if practising for a reenactment of a post-WW1 era Flying Circus show. The earlier 'Annoyed by unauthorised aerobatics' notice suggests some locals are not quite feeling the love: it encourages the aggrieved to complain to the Civil Aviation Authority. I did not enter The Sun (those who did can share their thoughts) and the other pubs were either closed for the afternoon, or closed-looking. Most people seemed to have a picnic at Hill Bottom. A lady walking a lurcher in South Stoke told me that some of the fields in the area are known locally as 'The Prairies' due to the 'high numbers of hares that can be seen there in season.' I enjoyed a fine coffee at The Village Cafe before getting the 4.18 train. Thank you for scheduling the walk.
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