The Thames Path: day 6

Day 6
Hurley - Reading
24.97km / 15.52 miles
5:27:19
1,600 calories
Cumulative total: 147.8km / 91.88 miles

Am I halfway? It feels like I might be. It depends on whether you believe the sign at the start of the trail which says 180 miles, or the bit on the website which says 184 miles. In any case, I'm definitely going to smash through halfway tomorrow, which will also be halfway timewise through the walk. It's downhill from here (although technically it's a very gradual uphill).

I was pretty achy last night and woke up a few times to roll over, but was still less achy this morning. After faffing gently to give my tent time to dry from the condensation it had picked up in the night, I was walking again by about 9.30am. It was a glorious morning in Hurley, the river calm and the skies blue and the path fairly quiet save for a few early dogwalkers. The path hugged the river and then meandered away from it to avoid a conservation area, instead going through a private estate with deer and a gorgeous red brick manor house that must have incredible views.

Yet another amazing house by the river

 It seemed to take no time at all to get to the next landmark I recognised, the Flowerpot Inn in Aston, just downstream of Henley. I've cycled past the Flowerpot a few times and running past it is a good loop when camping for Henley Royal Regatta.

Then it was past Hambleden Lock, where there was some sort of problem as the people in the lock were wondering aloud why they were going up when they should have been going down. All the locks today were busy, with queues of pleasure cruisers and barges waiting to go through them on what was a perfect day for chugging up and down the Thames.

The next 3km or so is a stretch I know well - the Henley Regatta course, and the warm-up area downstream of it. I cycled over to Henley in mid-June on a drizzly Friday that should have been the Friday of Henley Women's Regatta, and it was weird then to see the course lacking the white wooden booms that normally mark the outer edges of the straight 2,112m which takes rowers from the bottom of Temple Island to the Royal Regatta finish near town.

It was still weird today - yesterday and Friday ought to have been Henley Masters Regatta, and in a few weeks it's usually the delightful Henley Town & Visitors' Regatta which is the last you see of any of the Regatta infrastructure before it's removed until the following spring. Instead, the fenced-off grass along the course is bare and glowing green as nobody has walked on it for months.

In Henley I caught up with rowing friends Laura and Jon and their two little girls. We had a snack in the park and the girls fed the ducks before we said goodbye, wishing we could exchange hugs and instead waving before I trudged onwards. Henley was busy with people using the green space towards Marsh Lock, but once over what is a remarkably pretty lock it thinned out again.

 

The path goes away from the river again through Lower Shiplake, a village of large and lovely houses, before rejoining the bank for most of the rest of the day. Between Shiplake and Sonning Lock East there were lots of families enjoying the water, but soon after that it calmed down again and the path was nicely shaded for the most part. Just as well, as I discovered when I stopped for a sit down at Sonning Lock that my water bladder was empty, and there wasn't any way of filling it up again. I ate some Jelly Babies for the sugar rush instead and carried on.

Near Reading there's a large grassy area which was packed with people - more inflatable kayaks and SUPs - and, hallelujah, an ice-cream van, although he didn't have the lollies I craved. I made do with a Flake.

My day on the path ended just shy of 25km at Reading Bridge, and the 1km or so to my hotel felt like forever. There aren't any campsites round here (though one chap asked where I was staying, and I pointed out the lack of the campsites, and he said "not officially", so there must be spots somewhere to successfully wild camp. However, I'd rather not, in a built-up area).

The plus side of a hotel is a bath, so I made use of it, and washed a few clothes, and did a takeaway order from Wagamama, and also discovered I did pack the Deep Heat, which should help along with the two shorter days ahead of me. I am somewhat achy but I think it's all manageable; the sign I saw on the path in Henley today saying "No Going Back" is the mantra. I've come this far!