Ascent/Descent: 186/183m
Net
Walking Time: ca. 4 ½ hours
Toughness:
4 out of 10
Take
the 10.15 Cardiff Central service from Paddington (change Reading
10.40/10.51), arriving Cholsey 11.11. With Railcards other than Network
RC: take the 09.57 Didcot Parkway service (this may show as a ‘Cholsey’
train at Paddington), stops Ealing B’way 10.05.
Return
trains:
xx.12, xx.40, xx.44 (4
mins later from Pangbourne). Buy
a Cholsey return.
First
Wednesday outing for this walk…
It
is very exposed to the sun, but does not have much ascent…
Start
with a 2 km stretch through the village of Cholsey to reach the riverside
Thames path where you turn left and continue all the way to the bustling market town of Wallingford and
your riverside lunch-time pub The Boat
House. After
lunch you leave the river Thames and take paths around and across fields in the
gently rolling Oxfordshire countryside with some fine and expansive views
before visiting the attractive village of South Stoke and some refreshments at the Perch and Pike pub. From
South Stoke the short, last leg of the walk is along the Ridgeway and Thames Path to Goring where if you arrive
before 17.00, tea and cakes await you at Pierreponts café. Otherwise there are
some excellent pubs in the village or you can rest by the river and enjoy the
views before a short walk to the station.
Like
any walk finishing in Goring, this walk can easily be extended by following the
Thames Path to Pangbourne (adds about 7 km).
Lunch: The Boat
House (Greene King) in Wallingford
(6.5 km/4.0 mi, food all day).
Tea: Plenty of
options in Goring (a little beyond the station) and in Whitchurch/Pangbourne.
For details see the pdf.
For
summary, walk directions, map,
height profile, photos and gpx/kml
files click here.
T=swc.242
4 comments:
Please note that although the Perch and Pike is a lovely pub it closes at 3pm on weekday afternoons and does not reopen until 5.30.
n=12 off the train on a w=warm-with-a-breeze-and-increasing-cloud-cover kind of day.
The walk needs a while to get going, what with starting along residential roads to get to the Thames and then the river not always being visible for hedges and trees, but it is pleasant enough and Wallingford is indeed a fine market town (with a worryingly high rate of empty shops, though). Most if not all lunched/popped in for a drink after picnic at the Greene King pub by the river, which was fair enough. One then went back into town to explore the streets in more detail and especially the site of Wallingford Castle (recommended).
The afternoon had a bit of The Ridgeway and else gently rolling fields on offer, mostly arable and all but a few with good, walkable paths through it, and also some impressive clouldscapes as the darker ones kept rolling in, w/o ever raining off. The finishing stretch along the Thames suffers a wee bit from not actually being able to see the river most times for large houses' garden fences blocking the view. All in though: pleasant.
16.40 (fast) or 16.44 (stopping) trains for all but the few that turned right in Goring to go to the Cafe first.
Oh: one of the 12 walked on to Pangbourne.
Two others from the 4 of us who had tea and massive slabs of cake at Pierreponts went on to do the extension to Pangbourne.
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