Vole Explosion

COURT HILL TO GORING

3^rd July 2023

   There was no cooked breakfast available at Court Hill hostel in the morning, but the manager had kindly left me a few things to eat – cereal and milk, bread for toast, apples, bananas and tea bags.

   Today’s walk passed through Oxfordshire and Berkshire, before crossing the River Thames back into Oxfordshire again. I set off in the exact same weather as the last two days – sunshine, with some cloud and a westerly breeze pushing me along nicely. The trail was mostly level and, compared to yesterday, I was feeling well rested and energetic. Turbo-charged by the awesome power of bananas, I made fast progress past the Baron Wantage monument and onwards towards the Goring Gap, on the easiest walking day so far.

   Three thoroughbred racehorses came down the path in the opposite direction. This is obviously a centre for horse breeding and for the first three days of the walk I passed numerous training gallops alongside the Ridgeway. Some parts reminded me of the countryside around my birthplace – the horse racing town of Newmarket in Suffolk, but on a much larger scale.

   Apart from Red Kites and Corn Buntings, another characteristic creature of the Ridgeway is the Marbled White butterfly. Commonly seen for the last two days, these grassland specialists were positively abundant along this stretch.

   Most of the ancient archaeological sites were behind me now, but I passed an Iron Age Round Barrow called Scutchcambe Knob. There wasn’t really much to see other than an overgrown hole in the ground. Quite a disappointing Knob to be honest.

   Towards the end of the day’s walk the wind became a bit stronger and some dark clouds blew over. A few brief rain showers mostly missed me, and any rain that hit was soon dried off by the breeze. The last few miles of walking were between hedgerows that offered a bit of protection.

   I passed the steep valley of Streatley Warren and then the trail left the familiar chalk track and moved onto tarmac on the approach to the twin villages of Streatley and Goring. There was a sign here telling me I had walked 41 miles (66 km) since the start and had 44 miles (71 km) still to go. Further along I reached the clubhouse of Goring and Streatley Golf Club. A sign outside said non-members were welcome in the bar, so I decided on a pint to celebrate reaching the halfway point. This was the first beer available directly on the Ridgeway.

   Once I reached Streatley there were more pubs where I could continue celebrating. Streatley and Goring are twin villages on either side of the River Thames. This area is called the Goring Gap – a valley where the Thames passes through a gap between the higher lands of the North Wessex Downs and the Chiltern Hills.

   I had a pint in The Bull which cost a bargain priced £2.90, and then went on to The Swan – a riverside bar so posh that it has its own outdoor cinema. Just to prove how posh they are, they charged me nearly £7 for a pint, thus undoing all the good work done by The Bull. The sun had come out again by then and the view from their riverside terrace was almost worth the cost. Almost.

   After three days up in the dry Wessex grasslands, the sight of flowing water was something of a novelty and I sat mesmerised for a while. Eventually I crossed the Thames to Goring on the opposite bank. Here the Ridgeway intersects with another National Trail, the Thames Path, which I walked a few years ago.

   Once in Goring, my halfway point celebration continued at The Miller of Mansfield. Had I wanted to continue celebrating, there were another two pubs here, but I felt it would be highly irresponsible to continue drinking this early, so I continued to the railway station. The fact that one of the pubs is permanently closed down and the other doesn’t open on a Monday had no bearing on my decision.

   Earlier I had booked a room at the Travelodge in Reading, only a 15 minute train ride away. The rush hour crowds in Reading were a bit of a shock to the system and, after three days of mostly open grassland and a few trees, even the sight of big buildings was a novelty. Now I know how the Celtic King Caratacus felt when he was captured by the Romans and saw the glories of Rome for the first time, having never previously seen anything that wasn’t made of sticks and dung. But Reading certainly isn’t Rome.

Travelodge, Reading (£56)

14.0 miles     22.5 km     6 hours