Tiddington, Shabbington and the River Thame

We'd had a late night, and a few drinks, at David's party so Sunday started somewhat slowly and without a plan for a walk. Rosie suggested that we should venture into Oxfordshire and devised a route starting at Tiddington, close to junction 7 of the M40. This feels like quite a long way away, but it actually only took us 20 minutes to get there - much less time than some of the Chiltern walks we think of as close to home.

Most of the route was on one of the three local 'Promoted Routes': the Oxfordshire Way, The Thame (not Thames!) Valley Walk and the Bernwood Forest Trail, with a section at the start across a golf course. Although it stayed dry, the sun didn't come out. That was a shame because the blackthorn was in flower and would have looked lovely with some light on it!

The signage of first part on first part of the walk was poor. The Oxfordshire Way signs were hard to see, faded and, in one case, upside-down. What's more, some of the stiles were wobbly and others very high. Both the signage and the stiles improved when we entered Buckinghamshire.

As Shabbington (great name!), we took a slight detour to avoid a field of cows with calves and soon were walking alongside the River Thame on way back to the car.

We were home by around 1:30 for a delicious lunch of sausages (left over from Friday evening) with mustard on spelt bread, followed by  leftover chocolate brownies that I'd made for Saturday's party.

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Rickmansworth to Xerox along the Grand Union canal

Linear walks take a fair amount of planning, not least because they usually involve some public transport. Rosie has a particular interest in the Colne Valley because the proposed HS2 route cuts across it on a viaduct in the stretch between Rickmansworth and Uxbridge. As the Xerox Uxbridge office (with free car parking) is alongside the Grand Union canal that runs between the two towns, and there's a hourly bus service to Rickmansworth, we had ourselves a plan.

We happened to wake very early, so were able to get to Xerox, put our boots on (new ones in my case) and walked to the bus stop in plenty of time for the 8:32 bus. It was sunny, but still cold, so we weren't too impressed that the bus was 15 minutes late. We eventually got off the bus one stop too early, and almost immediately came across one of Alan's colleagues out for his morning run.

It was a lovely mid-March morning - bright and sunny, but a bit chilly, with pale green buds forming on the canal-side trees. It's a shame that we had to wait until mid-April for it!

It wasn't too far to get to the start of the planned walk at Rickmansworth Aquadrome - a local nature reserve formed around two lakes. These lakes were formed by the extraction of gravel for the original Wembley Stadium. We hadn't been aware of this place before, but would certainly have taken the boys they when they were young if we had.

We were soon at the Grand Union Canal, and remained on it for the rest of the walk. Like parts of the Kennet and Avon, many of the moorings are occupied by residential boats. These seem to be gathered in groups, forming small alternative communities. In some of these, narrow gardens have been planted  on the other side of the towpath.

A fair amount of flora was in evidence, notably Butterbur, Marsh Marigold and Ladies Smock. There were plenty of birds too. In particular, we could hear a cuckoo very clearly. There was also a very tame heron that almost seemed to pose for photos.

We made very good progress (and saw relatively few anti-HS2 signs), and were back in the Xerox car park by around 11:45.

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Spring at last - Reading to Shiplake

The sun came out as predicted on Sunday. Rather than re-tread familiar Chiltern paths, we drove to Shiplake  (South of Henley), took the bus to Reading and walked the seven or so miles back to the car.

The start of the walk repeated the start of one of our Kennet and Avon walks - along the Thames-side park to the start of the canal. We crossed the canal and carried on along the Thames. The number of cyclists and dog walkers reduced as we got further from Reading.

We got to Sonning Lock quicker than we expected. I don't think it's racist to remark that I've never seen a rastafarian lock-keeper before. We stopped for a snack on the other side of Sonning Bridge and to the compulsory photo.

Not long after re-starting, we reached a wooded section just before Shiplake College boathouse that was very muddy underfoot. A few years ago, we turned back here when walking in the other direction because of flooding.

It is further from there to Shiplake village then you'd think, with the Thames Path swinging away from the river, emerging near the station, not far from the car.

Here's hoping for more sunny weekend days!

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