The Thames Path: day 7

Day 7
Reading - Streatley
18.93km / 11.76 miles (including small detour into Pangbourne)
4:07:49
1,082 calories
Cumulative total: 166.73km / 103.64 miles

 
I knew today was a short day and I decided to be kind to myself, not pushing the pace and stopping a couple of times en route. Even so, with setting off at about 9.45am I was in my hotel by 3.30pm, so plenty of time to put my feet up for three longer days ahead.

I'm now definitely through halfway and also through 100 miles, which seems like quite a lot. According to my planning I have about 145km or 90 miles to go, with six days left, averaging 24km a day more or less. I think this is doable so long as I continue to pace myself!

Today began with a walk up the Reading Amateur Regatta course. Everyone likes Reading Regatta. It's a week before Henley Women's and is a "proper" side-by-side, old-fashioned town regatta with nice medals in nice boxes, decent competition, and good cakes. I've cycled along the towpath yelling at crews a few times and have raced the course even more times, including on one memorable day in 2011 back-to-back. My 'senior' 8 raced our club's 'elite' 8 in the final of two different categories, with the races about 30 minutes apart, so we raced once, beat them, then we both turned around and went back to the start to do it all again with the same result. I also nearly steered our quad into a barge in another, rather less successful year.

I'd been thinking that the path was remarkably litter-free but there were a couple of sad patches of rubbish left lying by the river today near Reading. I should have brought a bag or something to pick odds and ends up: here, there was too much to carry without the knowledge of a bin nearby.

The path took a diversion away from the river at Purley, and then through a quiet residential area, involving a hill. I almost thought I'd missed a sign before a cheerful chap reminded me to look for signs on lampposts and reassured me I was still on the right track. After a bit I was back on a path rather than pavement, and took a short break at Mapledurham Lock - with more boats going through to keep the lock-keeper busy.

A barge at Whitchurch Lock

Pangbourne wasn't too far. I try and get food from independent places if I can, but Costa was the first option in Pangbourne so I had lunch there (sitting INSIDE, my first inside-café experience for four months). Afterwards, I crossed the river again at Whitchurch Bridge, which is a toll bridge originally opened in 1792 (the current bridge is from 1902, renovated in 2014). It costs 60p to drive your car across!

Then the path meandered briefly through the pretty churchyard and up a hill through pretty Whitchurch village, before heading off down a bridleway. At the turning I passed a chap with a rucksack and walking shoes who looked like a seasoned hiker; he caught me up about a kilometre on and we had a nice chat for a bit. He was walking the Seven Shires Way in sections. I've never heard of this walk but it sounds really nice; it's a 234-mile circuit around the border of Oxfordshire. He'd done lots of long-distance walks, usually in sections, so we exchanged thoughts on those until he paused and I carried on. Unforgiveably I failed to get his name, though he asked if I was blogging and I reeled off the blog address. Fellow walker, if you read this, it was lovely to meet you!

The bridleway went up and then finally down to once again meet the river for another mile or so into Goring. My original plan had been to stay at the YHA in Streatley, but it's only opening next week and then only on an exclusive hire basis. So then I tried to book an AirBNB in Goring, but that wasn't successful either. So I tried to book the pub in Streatley, and thought I had done so, until they rang and said they weren't open yet either.

Goring Lock

So after looking for campsites in the vicinity with no luck - there's one in Wallingford, but it's not opening its shower and toilets for another week - I just decided to splash out on the Swan at Streatley. This is a beautiful hotel right on the river, they've ticked all the Covid boxes and the welcome was warm. It's so nice I'm going to splash out further and have a meal in their restaurant (!!!) with its view over Goring Lock for dinner. That should give me the required energy for the six days to come.

The Swan at Streatley