Tuesday 1 June
Unfortunately, the first day of ‘Flaming June’ turned out to be very wet. Not to be deterred, we put on full waterproof kit and were soon underway on this leg of the Thames path that will take us half way towards the Thames Barrier.
For the first time on this walk we decided to use Nordic Poles. For the uninitiated, Nordic walking is like cross country skiing, but without the skis, (and the snow), and is a great form of exercise. Rather than a long explanation, the photograph below of us in action should give some idea of what we mean. Chris has only just learnt to Nordic walk (he is not too bad a normal walking) so his technique is still developing.
Not long after starting we came across a very strange looking house overlooking the Thames. Chris, being an architect (retired, but still paying his ARB subscription) immediately recognised the house as being designed by John Outram. It was built in 1999 for an Egyptologist as a modern interpretation of an Egyptian house. However, from my perspective (not being an architect) it looked more like a juke box.

One of the advantages of Nordic walking is that it is faster and we had soon reached Goring. The rain had not stopped and we were very pleased to find that Goring is just the place to have an upmarket coffee shop, found by asking a local, as Chris’s iPhone app had no information at all. The owners did not seem to mind two wet travellers with muddy boots and provided good cappuccino and scones.
Not long after Goring the Path moved away from the river and went steeply uphill through woodland. We had not expected this on the Thames Path and were thankful that we were using Nordic poles, which make hill climbing much easier on old knees.
Our lunch stop was planned for The Greyhound at Whitchurch. Unfortunately we found that the pub had just changed owners and they were not offering food as yet. We therefore fell back onto plan B and went to the Ferry Boat Inn just down the road. Here we enjoyed a good lunch accompanied by a pint of London Pride.
Post lunch we came across a sign apparently marking half way between the source of the Thames and the Thames Barrier. We had been alerted to this sign by someone at the pub, but were expecting something a little more fitting of such an important milestone. As you can see from the photo below, Chris does his best to add gravitas to the occasion, but not with much success.
After lunch the rain finally stopped and we could enjoy the scenery of this wooded and very green section of the Thames valley. The boat traffic also increased with the improving weather and with it the activity at the locks.
The post lunch section was quite short and we soon reached Tilehurst. We have now covered 92 miles and are half way on our route to the Thames Barrier. And, as my grandfather used to say “the best is yet to come”
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