The Thames Path X:Reading to Goring-on-Thames (Sax/On Fire).

It was a late call if Saturday's, tenth, installment of our Thames Path walking project would even take place. I'm bloody glad it did though. From a day in which it looked like just three of us would be walking from Reading to Goring-on-Thames, we ended up with ten of us in the beer garden of The Catherine Wheel pub. Not everyone there had done all of the walk, a couple of them hadn't done any of it, but it was good to see them all as it always is.

 

I'd started my day very early and been at Paddington waiting for Dave Fog, Mo, and Pam in good time. The four of us took the train to the town of my birth, Reading - where we ended the most recent Thames Path walk (the ninth stage, back on Good Friday). On the train, Shep rang to say he would be joining us after all so once we met him outside the train station we headed, past the surprisingly beautiful Reading Town Hall (architect:Alfred Waterhouse, also responsible for London's Natural History Museum), the famously grumpy looking statue of Queen Victoria (looking away from a town she apparently was not amused by), and St.Laurence's church, to old favourite Munchees for pretty hearty brunches.

Pam's veggie breakfast looked massive and my egg, beans, and toast was good too (even if I did order chips rather than egg). I was a bit surprised they said they couldn't do bread and butter but they could do toast (does the bread arrive pre-toasted?) but the cup of tea I washed it all down with was a decent size.

We headed back to Reading Bridge, with views of the infamous Maiwand Lion in Forbury Gardens, by taking the bridge under the railway lines we'd just arrived on. We passed the Thames Water building that was, with a sense of cruel irony, called Clearwater House (let's hope that, among other things, our new Labour government sorts out the mess that fourteen years of Tory misrule has left our rivers and seas in) and then crossed the Thames on Reading Bridge itself.

The art nouveau style lights on 1923's Reading Bridge attracted some kind comments and on the other side, the Caversham side, we dropped down into, and through, Christchurch Meadows. If you like waterfowl Christchurch Meadows is a good place to go. Of course, the Egyptian geese took pride of place.

Although when we crossed back over the river, on Caversham Bridge, to the Reading side again the swans were out in force. As were day trippers enjoying gentle boat rides along the Thames. Nothing so laid back for us. We'd be walking and we had about eleven miles to go.

Some of us had actually covered this stretch before (back in May 2022 on a TADS walk I'd written to commemorate my friend Bugsy who'd lived in Reading) but this time we were doing it in the opposite direction. We saw baby chicks, an underwater rugby goalpost, some very fine boats, and some even finer houses, and we looked across to the site where Reading Festival is still held. Not too far from there you can find the site of the former Battle Hospital where, nearly fifty-fucking-six years ago, I made my entry into the world.

It's a long, flat, straightforward stretch and we saw people paddle boarding and leisure boating as well as one boat that was half-sunk and had clearly seen better days. It reminded me of the current state of the Conservative party. At the site of the former Roebuck Hotel, the sign still stands - just, we came off the river and crossed the train lines near Tilehurst station and took a slight climb into the well to do suburb of Purley-on-Thames.

Large, wide, houses with pleasant gardens and very little traffic, it reminded me a bit of an American suburb. We followed through suburbia and eventually descended into Mapledurham Drive and back towards the river near Mapledurham Lock. Nearby Mapledurham House includes a late 18c chapel, built in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style, that Shep reckons was used on the cover of Black Sabbath's album (Dave Fog also had some heavy metal tales from the area as he believed Jimmy Page once owned a riverside house around nearby).

Mapledurham House certainly saw visits from the poet Alexander Pope and was used for the filming of 1976's The Eagle Had Landed and in Midsummer Murders. It's also, some claim, the inspiration for Toad Hall, as illustrated by E.H.Shepherd, in Kenneth Grahame's 1908 The Wind in the Willows. Though, as a friendly dog walker would later inform us, not the most likely inspiration.

That would be nearby, a few fields and an end of the line pylon away, Hardwick House (above). Built in the early 16th century and once visited by Charles I who played bowls there. Not long after Hardwick House we hit Pangbourne Meadow and you could tell where we near a more built up area as there were people enjoying picnics, dog walks, and even swimming in the river. The Chilterns in the background giving the whole scene a most pleasing aspect.

We didn't even go into Pangbourne and, instead, crossed the Whitchurch Bridge straight into Whitchurch-On-Thames (first time ever for me) and to the Greyhound pub where a few had pints of Siren but I nursed a lemonade in the fairly busy, but nicely so, beer garden. Where Eamon was, as promised earlier, waiting for us with a pint on the go. Obviously having a drink to Ray Reardon whose death had been announced earlier that day.

A brass quartet rocked up and launched into a very proficient set of jazz and pop standards. George Botsford's Black and White Rag, Sentimental Journey, Misty, as well as The Beatles' Something. Abba was promised but we didn't stick around long enough to listen to it - I run a tight ship! I enjoyed the music but Shep's no fan of saxophones (unless, that is, they're playing The Flumps theme tune) and considered it the lowlight of the day. Sharon and Jason arrived to meet us as the saxophones blew and, before long, the group of us - now numbering eight - was heading up and through the pleasant village of Whitchurch itself into the Chilterns. How hilly would this stretch be?

Not that hilly would be the answer - though it hardly felt like a riverside walk at times. There was one "up and downy bit" but that was pretty manageable and it wasn't long before our group started slowly, very slowly, descending. Shep, Pam, Dave Fog, and Eamon had gone ahead and Mo, Sharon, and Jason had dropped back. I tried to hold the middle but eventually lost sight of both groups and enjoyed a few miles of walking in solitude, at one with nature.

The river was glimpsed again through the trees, fields of sheep were observed, and - as we began to reach river level - I could hear a band playing I Wan'na Be Like You from The Jungle Book under a marquee in a field at some kind of party. More brass.

This caused me to assume we were nearly in Goring but turned out there were a couple more miles yet. Long, flat, and pleasant (though I believe Mo described some of the walk as 'treacherous') on mud baked paths (and to think earlier in the week we were worried about flooding, instead people were commenting on being sweaty), under the railway bridge, and past a couple of long out of use pill boxes and a sign bearing the bizarre (and long popular) legend that "NAT HAS HERPES" into, finally, Goring itself.

People were relaxing on their boats or on benches by the riverside and a series of hearts on a wooden footbridge looked across to George Michael's old house. Once I gathered up Mo, Sharon, and Jason we passed by that very house and through Goring's pretty centre and into The Catherine Wheel pub where Shep, Pam, Eamon, and Dave Fog had been joined by Laura and Helen (fresh back from a cruise and disappointed that the signs in Athens were written in Greek) in the beer garden.

I'd been forewarned (or I would have been if I'd checked my WhatsApp) that the menu was not great for veggies (of which there were a few) but they were doing pizzas (made on site) and they were happy for those who wanted pizza to have that and those who wanted to order from the traditional menu to do that instead.

I had a pizza margarita (called a 'margie' on the menu - rather twee) with extra jalapenos and a couple more lemonades to wash it down and we sat in the garden, under cover, as the day's first light drizzle began to fall. It didn't dampen the spirits on what had been a lovely, and far more successful - for me - than imagined, day.

We spent a couple of hours in the pub garden. Shep, Laura, and Helen headed off in the car and the rest of us took the short walk to Goring & Streatley station and the train back in to London (though Sharon & Jason jumped off at Pangbourne - after a quick train selfie - and Eamon in Reading). with Mo recalling some of her dreams from over the years. I said goodbye to Pam, Mo, and Dave Fog in Paddington, took the Bakerloo line to Elephant & Castle and the 63 bus home. Arriving back at about 11pm (earlier than many walks) and with a 2024 walking record of 42,216 steps on my phone (Mo also set a yearly record just a couple of thousand shy of that) and pleased that, although nearly three weeks later than planned, I'd hit three million steps for the year (the target is double that and I'll be working on it over the coming weeks and months) I felt pretty pleased with how the day had panned out and went straight to bed where, for some reason, I didn't feel tired.

Excitement? Anxiety? Who knows? Thanks to Pam, Dave Fog, Mo, Shep, Eamon, Jason, Sharon, Laura, and Helen for joining me on this leg and thanks to Pam, Sharon, and Eamon for providing photos for this blog. Next time, date yet unspecified, we're starting at Goring and heading to Wallingford - or maybe Shillingford. There's a lot of logisitics to be decided from hereon in as the train stations and major settlements become sparser but, also, there should be more lovely countryside to look at and hopefully some more lovely days to look forward to. Hopefully Adam and Bee will be back to join us again soon. Time to get the steering committee back in action.