Eleven of us turned up on Sunday 21st July for the third part of our circumnavigation of the Wokingham Way. Overcast and cooler than it has been lately, at 20°C, it made for much more pleasant walking weather.
After sorting out the car sharing necessary for these linear walks, we set off from Coppid Beech and headed south by way of a rather urban route, crossing the A329 Berkshire Way.
Some of the paths and alley ways were obviously not used regularly and had become quite overgrown during the recent warm weather. One of our party had a pair of secateurs and did some on-the-spot trimming of the brambles and nettles.
Continuing south we passed a new housing estate where half of the houses were still being built. Then skirting Downshire Golf Complex and Great Hollands Recreation Ground, we briefly joined Nine Mile Ride before heading south again, leaving the urban part of our walk for Bramshill Forest.
After the initial uphill yomp into the forest, we had a pleasant route on well-defined paths through a mixture of tree cover and open heath. At one point we passed under the A3095 Foresters Way via a short tunnel. Throughout the walk we noticed that bracken was growing very well and was taller than us in places.
We stopped off in the woods for our picnic lunch where we'd found some fallen trees to use as seats. The sun came out and the temperature began to rise noticeably after lunch as we passed the slightly sinister looking Broadmoor Hospital on our way to Crowthorne.
Walking through Edgebarrow Woods and passing by Edgebarrow Hill we skirted the northern tip of Little Sandhurst before crossing the railway line into Ambarrow Wood.
Passing Horseshoe Lake, we spotted that ice creams were on sale in the sports centre, so we stopped off and bought some. While we were eating them, we watched some dragon-boat racing on the lake.
With our ice creams consumed, we continued the walk by following the River Blackwater as it weaved its way west through the gravel pits at Moor Green Lakes.
We continued following the river until we got to Finchampstead Bridge where we took a woodland route north of the river. The shade was much appreciated as the sun was quite strong by now and the clouds had mostly gone.
We stopped at the Tally Ho pub in Eversley for some cold drinks and a brief rest before the final mile of the walk, which took us over Eversley Bridge and through a few fields before re-joining the Blackwater River again.
The last part of the walk was through the Bramshill Plantation, which gave us shade again. The temperature was about 27°C when we finished the 13½ mile walk. I was glad I took two water bottles! See our route on Google Maps.
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