Today’s walk started from Wallingford Bridge on the east side of the town at the Riverside Car Park. This was a walk I had reccyed earlier in the year but was unable to park at the chosen car park due to the floods. This area of the Thames was quite badly affected by the floods in the early part of the year. Thankfully no flood issues to contend with today. The eleven of us met up, most of us having driven but one person make use of the good bus service that connects Reading to Oxford. The ticket machine was not in use so we were afforded the opportunity to park for free.
The ramble today took us started out on flat footpaths that ran parallel to the River Thames although not the Thames Path itself as that runs the other side of the river. We walked under the A4130 , passing a golf driving range on route and about two miles into the walk we arrived at the village North Stoke. This quite village would be familiar to those who attended my Woodcote walk in 2013 and like then we headed past the church in the village and then arriving for a quick drink stop next to the River Thames.
We left the footpaths for a short period and picked up a quite lane passing Littlestoke Manor and crossing over the B4009 Wallingford walk. We picked up the footpaths again and welcomed by a couple of small inclines. At this point we were greeted by a few runners who claimed to have been “lost”. As I was the “man with a map” then came to me to enquire as their precise whereabouts comparing where they thought they were on their map with mine. It turned out they were not lost at all and everyone was happy and we moved on.
We soon took our picnic lunch on top of one of the small inclines at Watch Folly having completed half the walk at this point. We took the opportunity to observe a small lightweight plane that was circulating overhead us practising taking off and landing on a nearby field. Not sure if I fancy having a go at doing that.
Lunch done (thank you to Naomi for providing the sweets!), we headed to our next stop, the pub! We crossed a few fields as well as the A4074 taking great care with the passing traffic. At one point we looked back and could see the cooling towers of Didcot Power Station but with three less standing than we saw on my Didcot walk a few weeks ago. At one point we anticipated a potential collision between the group and a tractor going full pelt harvesting the land. Quite wisely, we held our ground and let him go ahead. Soon enough, we arrived at the pub stop in Hailey for a refreshing pint. Interesting (or perhaps not) I had never been to the King William pub on a walk with the group until this year and this was the third time in maybe a few months. No complaints from me though.
We left the pub heading in a northerly direction past a couple of farms and through Wicks Wood. Following a short descent, we headed west eventually picking up the Ridgeway for maybe a mile or so, perhaps slightly under. The completion of the walk was in sight. We walked through a corn field just to the north of the village of Mongewell before eventually arriving back at our cars. For a few of us we would meet up again later in the day for the evening’s social at the Horse and Groom at Hare Hatch. All in all a very fine day indeed.
One final note, when submitting this walk I was undecided whether to pick the Sunday or the Bank Holiday and as I write this blog up, one look outside my window tells you I made the right choice. It is throwing it down!