Length:
18.3 km (11.4 mi) or 25.0 km (15.5 mi) to Pangbourne
Ascent/Descent:
300m or 350m to Pangbourne
Net
Walking Time: ca. 4 hours or 5 ½ hours to Pangbourne
Toughness:
4 out of 10
Take the 10.15 Didcot Parkway service
from Paddington (may show as a
‘Cholsey’ train at Paddington; stops Ealing B’way 10.23). Or take the 10.27 Cheltenham Spa service
and change Reading (11.03/11.14). In each case arriving Goring &
Streatley 11.27.
Return
trains:
xx.14 (direct, but shave off 15
mins by changing at Reading), xx.27 (via Didcot). From Pangbourne: xx.19
via Reading (shorter), xx.22 via Didcot (longer).
Buy
a Goring & Streatley return in any case.
Last
year we walked this mid-April mid-week and it seemed – as the walk author says in
his blurb – the best time of year to do this walk. Bluebells then weren’t at their
peak (see the walk report on the site), they should be today.
From
the blurb…: “This circular walk is best done anti-clockwise and the walk instructions
are written to reflect this. It is a mix of beautiful, rolling Chilterns
countryside, forest trails and quiet country lanes. This is a spring to early
autumn walk. The best time to do it however is probably late April or early May
when the foliage of the beech trees is at its most vibrant and where there
should be good displays of bluebells and other spring flowers in some woods.
Sections of the trails through woods will be muddy after rain. There
are very short but safe stretches along potentially busy roads. There are three pubs en route before you reach
Goring. …”
Walk
Option:
At the end, from Goring station find the Thames Path and continue along one of the
best stretches of it (with the water on your right-hand side) to Whitchurch and
thence across the Thames to Pangbourne station (not written up but with a gpx
file on the site). The Swan
pub on the river is an ideal spot to await the train (2 mins from the
platform).
For
summary, walk directions, map, height profile,
photos and gpx/kml files click here.
Lunch: The Sun Inn in Hill
Bottom (8.2 km/5.1 mi, food to 15.00); the chef is ex-Gordon Ramsay and Tom
Aiken, so expect gastro-food. Welcoming walkers these days and proved a very
good lunch stop last year. Further
along, as long as you beat a 5
km/h average pace…: The Red Lion (trad
village pub fare, on Sundays: Roasts only) and The
Plaice (fish & chips), in Woodcote
(11.9 km/7.4 mi, food to 14.00 at both establishments).
Tea: Plenty of options in
Goring (a little beyond the station) and in Whitchurch/Pangbourne. For details
see the pdf. T=swc.243
2 comments:
Note for future walkers : the Sun Inn must be under new management; there wasn’t a soupçon of Gordon Ramsey’s influence in the cuisine. Unless, as one of my fellow hikers commented, it was from ‘Hells Kitchen’. We were the only three dining in an empty pub with no atmosphere and sub standard grub. I advise the next time this route is followed to have a large breakfast and keep going until you reach the other pub by the cricket pitch.
N=10 turned out. Weather was w=cool-cloudy-dry-sunny-glimpses-later
The real stars of today were the beech woods with an iridescent green light shining through the young leaves. In second place, a field of buttercups. Bluebells were much in evidence but, for jaded old me, they lacked the “wow” factor. One off-piste wood glimpsed across a field WAS spectacular. Maybe the bluebells are always bluer on the other side of the field.
I think this walk could give more indication of distance at times. The word “soon” is open to misinterpretation. I had trouble with the stretch through Great Chalk Wood 4 years ago and exactly the same thing happened again (at points 8-9). I was walking for so long that I doubled back to check I hadn’t missed the way out. I hadn’t.
I thought I’d found my way through a later wood alright. Then I realised I was walking past the same “primitive Methodist” building I’d passed on the way in! That could have been my fault though …. LOL …(as you young people say)….. Luckily, Mr Google was on hand to sort me out.
I was slower than the others, even when I wasn’t walking round in circles. Just missed the 17:14 so had to spend some time in the Miller of Mansfield which was OK.
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