Length: 24.1 km (15.0 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 250/248m; Net Walking Time: 5 ¼ hours
Toughness: 5/10
Take the 09.57 Didcot Parkway train from Paddington
(10.05 Ealing Broadway), arrives Cholsey 11.14.
Missed the train? Take the 10.15 Cheltenham Spa train, change
Didcot Parkway (10.55) and travel back one stop on the 11.02 Paddington train,
getting to Cholsey at 11.07 (i.e. before the group!).
Return trains from Goring & Streatley are on xx.12 and xx.42, journey time 79 mins. Shave off up to 30mins by changing at Reading onto a fast train. Buy a Cholsey return.
Return trains from Goring & Streatley are on xx.12 and xx.42, journey time 79 mins. Shave off up to 30mins by changing at Reading onto a fast train. Buy a Cholsey return.
This walk offers a fine combination of gentle
Oxfordshire countryside, wide grassy horse training gallops, a stretch of the
Ridgeway with splendid views from the Berkshire Downs, and a final saunter
along the banks of the Thames. Although the walk is fairly long, it has nothing
too steep or demanding.
The main walk is best undertaken from mid spring to
early autumn. With a fairly late start to accommodate the early lunch stop at
The Red Lion Blewbury. The suggested tea stop is the Beetle and Wedge riverside
restaurant at Moulsford, a place with ‘Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Three Men in a
Boat’ associations. There are also plenty of hostelries in Streatley and Goring
at the end of the walk.
Before starting the walk, devotees of Agatha
Christie’s detective stories might want to make a short detour to visit the
novelist’s grave in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Cholsey. To do this, follow
the walk directions for the first 180 metres till you reach the railway bridge,
but instead of turning left under the railway, turn right and follow the path
for 700 metres as it climbs up to the church. Afterwards, retrace your steps
and pass under the railway to re-join the directions.
Lunch: The
Red Lion in Blewbury
(6.6 km/4.1 mi), or – a little further along and to the left off the route
along London Road – The Blueberry (food to 14.30).
Tea: The
Beetle & Wedge Boathouse en route plus lots of choice in Streatley
and Goring-on-Thames (see the pdf for details).
T=swc.49
4 comments:
This is one of the few walks in SE England where you have a good chance of seeing brown hares. Its the valley path along Unhill Bottom which is en route to what was Starveall Farm but is now some sort of holiday lodge? They are usually on the steep slopes to your right often near the tree line. You reach the valley after about 11m. The last time I did this walk in the high summer of 2016 there was also a brilliant display of poppies in the valley but the land use changes here a fair bit and its probably too early in the year
Weather was w=sunny-hot-turning-humid-later N=7 got off the train and we set off. And that’s all I can tell you. The other six were never seen again. (Twilight Zone music). The Red Lion was searched – no sign. Where had they gone? To this day no-one knows. It's as if they walked off the face of the earth.
The directions could do with at least one tweak. Where it says “head down to the right of Lower Chance Farm buildings” they should really say “head down to the right of the solitary light coloured shed”. There’s no buildings plural, there no sign of a farm and an inexperienced walker could be forgiven for thinking they had gone the wrong way. A really inexperienced walker might even trudge back up to the evergreens to check.
Any sign of hares Mr Tiger?
Didn't see no hares. Maybe they split. Split gettit? Hares.
But tbh I didn't go that way. I stayed on the Ridgeway into Streatley.
(Although according to noticeboards they can also be seen from the Ridgeway)
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