10.08 train from Paddington to Twyford, arriving 10.37, changing there for the 10.45 to Henley
You can also make this connection via the Elizabeth Line, as follows: 9.38 Farringdon, 9.41 Tottenham Court Road, 9.43 Bond Street, 9.47 Paddington, 9.55 Ealing Broadway, arriving at Twyford at 10.33
A day return to Pangbourne should serve for Henley, unless you get a hard-hearted ticket inspector, in which case you need a Twyford to Henley single too.
For most this walk needs no introduction - a pleasant ramble through wood and field on the southern edges of the Chilterns. I have records of good displays of snowdrops and aconites in the churchyard of Rotherfield Pepard, so let's hope they are a) out and b) still there.
Lunch pubs have come and gone on this walk, but the latest intel is that there are two mid walk - the Red Lion after 4.7 miles and the Unicorn after 5.3 miles, so hopefully one will serve our purposes. The Cafe St Louis in Pangbourne is supposed to open late, and the village also has at least three pubs.
Trains back from Pangbourne are at 22 and 52 past the hour. You can theoretically shave ten minutes off the journey time to Paddington by changing for a fast long-distance train at Reading, but personally I would just stay put on the stopper. For Ealing Broadway change at Slough.
2 comments:
Cafe St Louis is unfortunately permanently closed....
I was astonished to find 25 assembled at Henley station for this walk, including some faces new to me at least. It later turned out that at least two got an earlier train (though neither one saw the other), so n=27.
The weather was w=mostly-cloudy and the ground remarkably dry - the latter just as well as I had forgotten to bring my trekking pole (protects the knee ligaments, don’t you know). Nice snowdrops in Rotherfield Pepard churchyard, plus crocuses, aconites, some daffs and a few adventurous lesser celandines. There were also various pockets of woodland snowdrops throughout the walk, which were a delight to see. Quite a few birds were feeling the sap rising and belting out their mating songs.
I felt the sap rising too as we approached the Red Lion, since there were some flashes of sun at this point. I might have been tempted to sit in the garden, but 15 others were already ensconced in a gloomy tent that smelled of paraffin. The food was nice, but portions were small, was the general consensus. I had the fish and chips and so got a reasonable calorie intake, but my portion of mushy peas was barely bigger than the tartare sauce.
Five, I understand, ate at the Unicorn, but two were turned away from it for lack of staff, or some such. They found a nearby pub called the Greyhound, which they recommend to future walkers.
In the afternoon lots of beech woods. Also “sheep with long necks” near Pangbourne. We reached the latter easily in the daylight, despite the fears of some walkers. The Cafe St Louis seems to be gone, but the Artichoke nearby was well spoken of by some. Three of us went to Costa and watched staff make several time-consuming and convoluted syrup and sugar concoctions (£4.80) before spending a nanosecond serving us tea (£2.60): pricing needs to be looked at here.
Eight of us then gathered in the Cross Keys from whence we got the 18.22 train. We easily got eight seats together and I was just thinking someone should have bought supplies for the train when two bottles were produced. So a jolly journey home (for us at least: maybe not for the rest of the carriage).
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