Sunshine over Streatley

Date: Saturday 12th May 2012
Route: Streatley Circular along the Ridgeway, the Fair Mile and the Thames Path
Distance: 10 miles

A beautiful day and an early start encouraged us to try out a walk from the Pathfinder Chilterns and Thames Valley walking book, slightly further away from home than normal, starting and ending in the Berkshire Thames-side village of Streatley, which was mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The walk starts from a (free) National Trust car park at Lardon Chase, half a mile uphill from the village centre, quickly leaving an initial (and slightly perilous) golf course behind and joining the Ridgeway, first as a tarmac-ed lane, then as a tree- and hedge-lined track.

After a steady but undemanding climb, with wide views across rolling green countryside, the path dips down and you leave the Ridgeway to head across fields, then right again along the Fair Mile, a wide grassy track, previously used for galloping horses, though thankfully not churned up by hoof-prints. Again, there are wide-ranging views across the lush, undulating countryside of the Berkshire Downs, plus the added distraction of bikers zooming around the woods to the left.

The grassy path becomes a chalky track, before heading to a road, which you follow for a short distance before heading back across fields and down to the Thames-side village of Moulsford. One of the disadvantages of this walk is that the pubs en route don't make an appearance until the walk is over two-thirds complete, so you might want to stop for a picnic lunch either on the grassy section of the Fair Mile or on the path in the shelter of the hedge once you have left the road behind (this is where the 4th photo above was taken).

There is a hotel - the Beetle & Wedge - at Moulsford, which is on the riverside, however it looks to cater more to the discerning diner than the dishevelled walker, so we passed this by to proceed along a section of the Thames Path that we hadn't walked before. Unlike other sections of the Thames Path closer to London, there were very few people on the path across open meadows, with views over the river to Oxfordshire, occasional boats and vast amounts of property envy emanating from us.

The path passes Cleeve Lock, which has a couple of picnic benches and is a good place to stop for a rest, then continues on into Streatley, past solid Georgian houses, past The Bull pub and up the hill back to the car park. Both Cleeve Lock and The Bull feature in "Three Men In A Boat" - which you can download for free on Kindle (the book is also very cheap!).

Although there are some great views over the countryside to experience on this walk, it probably isn't one that you would want to do very often - there isn't a huge amount of variety, as all of the paths are long, straight and pretty similar in terms of views and walking surface, there isn't really anywhere to refuel and recharge your batteries until the end of the walk, then it ends with a very steep climb, just when you have walked 9½ miles and could really do with a sit-down!