COVID 19
Track-and-Trace: please provide email address or mobile phone number at the start
Rule of Six: from start to finish please, and up to May 16
Length:
22.1
km (13.7 mi) or 18.5 km (11.5 mi).
Ascent/Descent:
337/327m;
Net Walking Time: ca. 5–5 ½ hours
Toughness:
5 out of 10
Take
the 09.50 Hereford
train from Paddington (Slough 10.04, Reading 10.19, Oxford 10.45),
arrives Hanborough 10.54. From Ealing B’way take the 09.21 to Reading
and change at Slough (09.44/10.04).
Return
trains: xx.12
(72 minutes journey time). Buy a Charlbury return.
Classic
Cotswold Scenery:
The River Evenlode; soft, easy hills and fertile countryside; Blenheim Palace
and its Great Park; Akeman Street (the Old Roman Road from Alchester to
Cirencester); some open farmland; delightful stone villages & Lord
Rotherwick’s deer park, Cornbury Park.
For a shorter walk: stay on the Oxfordshire Way as described at point 49
in the directions (Grid Reference SP 375 179), first along field boundaries,
then lanes, into and through Charlbury to the station: 18.5 km/11.5 mi, or take
a more direct route into Stonesfield (obvious from the map).
Lunch:
Picnic,
as The White Horse in
Stonesfield (12.8 km/8.0 mi) is currently closed after a failed community buyout and the The Plough Inn in Finstock (17.5
km/10.9 mi) is fully booked.
For
walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. t=1.38
5 comments:
Has anyone booked a pub in Charlbury at the end of the walK?
Was going to join but it looks like the 9:50 train out is sold out. Packed with walkers I guess!
It looks like I could still buy a super off-peak ticket. Can one buy a super-off-peak then take a train that's listed as sold out?
...just when you thought you had seen everything...
I have no idea whether GWR will let you book tickets at the machine in P'ton in the morning, but that seems unlikely/illogical if that train is supposedly 'full'.
Chiltern though are running the 09.20 from Marylebone to Oxford, connecting to the posted train from Paddington, which beyond Oxford most certainly won't be full, however they define 'full'...
Following earlier comments, I did indeed travel on the earlier train from Marylebone to avoid potential ticket problems at Paddington, but was the only one doing so. The others reported no problems buying a ticket for the journey at the machines in P'ton, getting onto the train (ok, it departed from Platform 1 which has no ticket gates) and no inspection on the train itself. At Oxford, plenty of folk got off, showing that indeed it was probably 'full' by Covid standards, but hardly anyone on, so - as expected - the train then was not 'full' by anyone's definition of the word. What GWR are trying to achieve by signalling online that one can't get onto a certain train (not even via Marylebone as I did - even that ticket variant wasn't bookable online, but then doing nothing to enforce it at Paddington, is anyone's guess.
As for the walk: beautiful as always, no mud, plenty of signs of spring, some very new lambs, a hare in a field, bright sunshine, pleasant company (many of whom had not done this walk before). We picnicked on that grassy slope by the River Evenlode just before Stonesfield, stopped at The Plough Inn in Finstock for a drink in the garden (knowing that would cost us the 16.12 train) and then had plenty of time for a second stop in Charlbury at the Rose & Crown. 17.12 train back.
w=sunny-and-warm n=7
[Plus 2 others, walking this independently at the same time, in about the same time.]
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