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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 4 December 2016

A pretty walk in the Thames Valley

4 December 2016

Book 1 Walk 4 Pangbourne Circular

Distance 13.6km (8.4m); toughness 3/10.

Trains: 09.45 London Paddington (Ealing Broadway 09.53) Pangbourne 10.53

Return trains to London Paddington from Pangbourne at xx:37. (You may be able to save a few minutes by changing trains at Reading to get a fast train to London.)
This walk has pretty villages, a toll bridge, fine views of the Thames in the morning and a serene stroll through a rural idyll after lunch.
Your  suggested lunch pub is the Sun Inn in Hill Bottom which serves food all day.
There are three possible pubs in Pangbourne for finall refreshments.
See here for further information about the walk and full walk instructions.

8 comments:

Paul A said...

There appears to be a bus service for part of the outward journey, from Tilehurst to Pangbourne arriving 11.05. The return journey seems unaffected.

Fi said...

Thanks for the heads up re bus.

Anonymous said...

The bus ride seems to be only 10 minutes. I hope this doesn't put people off of coming on the walk. I plan on going as I have wanted to do this walk for awhile. Hope to see other people there!
~Karen

Anonymous said...

Me and two others will be on this walk.

Anonymous said...

Can you drive to this place?

Paul A said...

n=10 at Pangbourne station, most from the delayed train + connecting bus (which despite delays worked perfectly). w=Bright_and_sunny_all_day. 5 picnicers (at point 12) enjoying the views along the river, 6 stopped at the cosy Sun Inn later in the walk (2 eating, roasts only on Sundays, reported OK but not wonderful), and having lost the others at various stages 5 stopped for (an adequate) pot of tea and a very nice pint at The Swan, a short walk from the station on the river at Pangbourne - and stayed for a sticky toffee pudding (and another pint) - catching the 17.37 back home.
There were rumours of dissident group that, despairing of the trains, had done a different walk from Reading. And sadly unreliable Karen never showed, so we did not have the pleasure of her company.

Anonymous said...

Oi unreliable? I ended up with the other group. As much as I wanted to do that walk, and I really did, I wasn't sure if the transport would get us there with enough sunlight to make the walk. You will have to wait another week for the pleasure of my company. Which will be on the watts chapel walk on Sunday. Peter's alternate walk today was lovely.
~Karen

PeteB said...

As the prime mover behind the fab 4 dissident group (I was Ringo!) here is a note on what we did. (By the way- how can a service which is delayed work perfectly?).
Concerned that the FGW arrangements may not work because of delayed trains at Paddington we took a fast train to Reading where we could (re)consider our options. We noted that the posted train would be arriving late at Reading so 4 of us decided to do a Thames path walk from Reading to Pangbourne (about 6m I think) where again we could consider our options. At Pangbourne we all had a picnic lunch on a bench by the river and then because it was only 1.30pm and far too early to return to London I suggested we walked from Pangbourne to Goring which imho is the loveliest stretch of the entire Thames path (and yes I have walked all 186m of it so I know what I'm talking about). En route we did the short sharp climb for a bit of hill work and to enjoy the fabulous views of the Thames Valley at the bench viewing spot.
We continued on to Goring where 2 took the short, direct route to Goring station to catch the 15.32 and two of us continued on the riverside path to Goring for tea and a massive slice of delicious cake at the Village Tea rooms before catching the increasingly crowded 16.32 back to London. So we ended up doing a 10-11 mile Thames Path walk. A SWC adventure in the finest of our traditions with all 14 of us enjoying our day out in perfect sunny weather.