Pete's Walks- Goring and Hartslock (page 4 of 4)
After about a quarter of a mile I came to another junction, where the bridleway kept right but I forked left along a footpath. There were waymark signs here, but there were no waymarks or arrows a hundred yards further on, where I forked right at a footpath junction. I then continued through Great Chalk Wood for just over another half a mile.
Great Chalk Wood, where I forked left at a junction onto a footpath (I then kept right at an unsigned fork roughly where the path appears to end in this shot
Great Chalk Wood
Great Chalk Wood
Great Chalk Wood
Great Chalk Wood
The path left Great Chalk Wood at a gate. It reached a second gate after just a few yards, then continued beside a right-hand hedgerow with a huge corn field on my left. The path rose uphill to a corner, where it turned left, still following the edge of the field. The path then continued on beside the same hedge on my right for several hundred yards, eventually dropping downhill to reach a playing field on the edge of Goring.
The path continuing from Great Chalk Wood
View back to Great Chalk Wood
The path continuing from Great Chalk Wood
The path continuing from Great Chalk Wood
View towards the Thames Valley
The playing field at Goring
The path went slightly left as it crossed the playing field (aiming for a short section of wooden fence in the opposite hedgerow). I then went a short way down a residential street before turning left, the next street eventually turning right to reach a T-junction. Here I went left and soon reached another T-junction. Here I turned right, now with a railway line to my left. I then took the next road on the left to return to the centre of Goring, where I turned left along the path back to the toilets and car park.
The street in Goring after I turned left just after the playing field
Street in Goring after I turned left (I turned right at the end)
The centre of Goring (the path to the car park starts where the whit sign is, above the cyclist)
Discounting the time I spent at Hartslock looking for orchids and eating my lunch, the walk took about two hours and twenty minutes (10 minutes longer than last year, I must be getting old). As I said last year, it was a very pleasant and scenic route which I'd be very happy to do again. The first section along the river Thames was very good and made quite a change for me, and then the long section through Great Chalk Wood was quite different but also very good. The only dull bit was going uphill along the drive to Upper Gatehampton Farm, but once past the farm there were some nice views, as there were at the end of the walk as I approached Goring.