Length: 20.0 km (12.4 mi) [shorter walk possible,
see below and webpage]
Ascent/Descent: 364m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 ¼
hours
Toughness: 4 out of 10
Take the 09.27 Didcot train from Paddington
(Ealing 09.35,
Reading 10.24), arrives Goring
& Streatley 10.36.
Return
trains: xx.18 to 18.18 last …. (from 47 minutes journey time, if you change at
Reading onto a fast train).
Note: the 18.18 terminates at Reading, where you have to swap to a Crossrail
train into London.
Leave Goring with a pretty vista over the Thames,
before following the Ridgeway path up on to the Downs. Lunch is at the
excellent and cosy Bell Inn. The route back ends with a steep climb and a lovely
view over the Thames, before a steep descent, and re-crossing the Thames
into Goring.
The posted (slightly longer) route goes up to and
around Streatley Warren with its sensitive wildlife (access through it
is only possible from November to February).
A shorter Main Walk and a shortcut to that route are
described, as is a route over another hill with very fine views up and down the
Thames Valley near the start.
Lunch:
The Bell Inn
in Aldworth [“The Gateway to the Downs”]
(Grade II listed, family-owned for over 250 years, Real Ales only on the pump,
accompanied by plain simple warm rolls, soup and traditional puddings heated in
the Aga; 8.6 km/5.3 mi, food to 14.30). There is also The Four Points Inn a little
off route in the same village.
Tea: The Bull Inn and The Swan at Streatley (Coppa Club)
in Streatley and plenty of options across the river in Goring.
For walk directions, map, height
profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here.
t=swc.17.a
2 comments:
N=1 at the station. Waited a bit but nobody else. Goring’s churchyard quite a sight. A frothy sea of cow parsley. Pint of mild at the Bell then back the short way Some bloobs but not particularly photogenic.Up the hellish hill, buttercups on top, down the other side. Quick half in the Catherine Wheel. Home. Trains OK, reduced because of strike but still running. W=cloudy-chilly
I’m amazed that only 1 person turned up for this walk. I arrived too early for the scheduled train at Ealing Broadway and was so cold in the brisk north easterly winds that I went home. Sorry to have missed you Ian. Presumably Thomas and his brisk walking followers were still in Wales.
Post a Comment