9.32 (Birmingham-bound) train from Marylebone to Haddenham & Thame Parkway, arriving 10.09 - buy a day return to this station.
There is then a slightly annoying 18 minute wait for the 10.27 bus to Thame, arriving 10.39, though as it is not a long distance we might share a taxi if any happens to be lurking around...
Yes, I know.... South of the River types will bridle at the thought of going out into the flatlands of Oxfordshire. But this walk is gorgeous at this time of year - or has been in the past - with endless fields of buttercups. Thame is also a very cute market town, worth seeing in its own right, and the full walk takes you to a very idyllic rural pub.
That pub is the Clifden Arms, 7.4 miles into the walk, but there are other options. If you do the extra loop (ie the 15.2 mile version of the walk) you come to the Fox and Goat after 5.5 miles, while the Rising Sun with a quite basic "with chips" menu is 0.9 miles after the Clifden Arms (or just 7 miles into the walk if you do a shortcut - the 11.7 mile version of the walk)
Lastly there is a large and popular chain pub, the Old Fisherman in Shabbington, about a mile beyond the Rising Sun: this is also the only lunch pub for the shorter (9.4 mile) walk.
Thame has various tea options and pubs.
Buses from Thame back to Haddenham & Thame Parkway go at 15 and 48 past until 17.48, but only the 48 past connects well with trains, arriving at 55 past, with the train to Marylebone at 06 past.
After 17.48 there are buses at 18.15 (no train connection), 18.45 (connecting to the 19.06 train), 19.15 (connecting to the 19.38 train), 19.35 (generous connection to the 20.06 train), 19.55 (tight connection to the 20.06 train)...etc: look up for yourself if you are still there this late!!
3 comments:
9.32 (Birmingham-bound) train from Marylebone for newbies perhaps?
Thanks. Corrected
N=9 on this walk. There was allegedly a tenth who got to Marylebone and was told by the ticket office that the ticket would cost £50 and went home. So much for ticket offices. The fare (from boundary zone six) was £14.70.
The “awkward wait for the bus” at Haddenham & Thame Parkway was even more awkward because live bus information said the bus was 22 minutes late. Actually, it was pretty much on time. Maybe that was an earlier bus that was also late? Whatever, we started the walk on schedule.
It was a lovely day, w=sun-and-cloud. The early buttercup meadows were perhaps a little less intense than I remembered, but I needn’t have worried. We had acres and acres and ACRES of them during the walk. I think we will all have yellow-hued nightmares tonight. I certainly couldn’t be had up under the Trades Description Act.
Towards the end of the afternoon the succession of meadows - and some large arable fields with knee-high wheat - got rather wearisome to tell the truth. Some walkers at this point said they would not do the walk again. I would certainly say that without the buttercups - or, perish the thought, in winter mud - it could be a bit of a slog. But at this lovely time of year, in my judgment, it passed muster.
One walker decided to do the Ickford shortcut and we did not see him again. We also lost another one somewhere. So seven of us carried on to the Clifden Arms and ate in its very nice garden. I remember this pub as rather eccentric and bohemian, with chicken pecking around. It is now an efficient gastro pub. The staff were friendly but some of the portion sizes disappointing. There were not many other customers (maybe three to four tables occupied in total), so maybe they need to look at their value for money.
In the afternoon we intended to do a refreshment stop at the Shabbington pub, but failed to notice until too late that the main route bypasses it. So we got to Thame at about 5pm. After playing “Staying Alive” over the BeeGee guy’s grave (he obviously didn’t…), we went to a pub called Thatch, or somesuch, which had a nice back patio. There we had tea, puddings, gin and tonics, a sharing plate of fancy cheeses, a bottle of red wine, and three pea, mint and watercress soups.
Waiting for the 18.45 bus, I was charmed to see swifts overhead (I was beginning to think they were extinct in the south east). Earlier I had twice seen swallows and once mayflies, which restored my faith in our nation’s biodiversity a bit.
The bus was late, but the 19.06 train lingered in the platform so we caught it by a whisker (or rather, by sprinting like mad over the footbridge and down the ramp). We had bought rather over-generous “supplies” for the train, given that it was just a 40 minute journey. Four of us ended up finishing them standing against the railings (no benches!) in Dorset Square, and then sat in a bus stop (at which, mysteriously, no bus ever stopped..)
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