Length: suggest short walk today, excluding tour of colleges: circa 5 miles
Toughness: 1 out of 10
London Paddington: 10-23 hrs. Great Western service to Oxford
Arrive Oxford: 11-17 hrs
Return: approx 01 and 32 mins past the hour
Rail ticket: apart from the obvious, holders of Freedom Passes, if feeling cheapo, could travel on Elizabeth Line trains from Paddington to Reading for free, just leaving them to pay for tickets(s) between Reading and Oxford, but I do not recommend this as the Elizabeth Line trains are all-stopping and take ages, they do not have WC facilities on board, and at present many services are being cancelled, leaving those that do run being horribly overcrowded.
I usually post this walk in the period 'twixt Christmas and New Year as a leg stretcher, to walk off some of the festive excesses on the flat without over exerting oneself, as a warm up for more challenging walks to come.
The riverside paths in the morning before Port Meadow can be waterlogged or flooded, so I will check conditions closer to the date. If (hopefully) fully navigable on the day, we have a pleasant walk opposite Port Meadow to Godstone Lock then Wolvercote, where we will stop for lunch at one of the pubs in Lower Wolvercote or Wolvercote Green: recently we have found Jacob's Inn in Lower Wolvercote to be a good bet.
After lunch we join the Oxfordshire Canal for an undemanding but pleasant stroll along the canalside path. At this time of year there is little point in leaving this path and following the walk directions to Wolfson College, as the fields and meadows just beyond it are usually flooded and unpassable in winter. So instead, we stay canalside all the way back to Oxford railway station. You could, if you wish, continue on into Central Oxford, either for retail therapy or to take the college tour, which is perfectly safe and doable in the dark.
For those of us with a booking for the SWC Social tonight to see The Nutcracker, we should be back in London in good time to enjoy the performance this evening.
T=1.13
Walk Directions are here: L=1.13
1 comment:
I got to Paddington nice and early, to find all services suspended in and out of the station following a person having been hit by a train near Langley. A quick head scratch, and instead of enjoying a leisurely coffee, I was back on the Bakerloo lIne to Marylebone, where an Oxford bound train was ready to depart. I was lucky to get one of the last free seats, as the whole population of South Korea was on board, heading for Bicester Village. So I managed to salvage the day but friends who arrived at Paddington closer to our train departure time were left stranded - having swapped text messages with them they abandoned the day.
That meant in was just me n=1 on w=a-sunny-dry-day-but-with-a-strong-cold-wind which required several layers of clothing to keep snug and warm. Plenty of deep puddles on paths and in fields but no flooding of main paths, so no need to divert off the written route, just lots of slippery mud to test ones balance. I arrived at Jacobs Inn - now renamed The Wolvercote - to enjoy a very good lunch in the half full pub which was getting busier by the time I set out to cross Wolvercote Common and then to take the Oxfordshire canalside path . By the time I reached Oxford railway station services in and out of Paddington had resumed, and a good fast train whisked me back to London.
Whilst my own company was delightful, of course ? ! , it would be nice if I had some company proper on my New Year's Day Walk West in four days time.
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