🥾 Walk 98 - Henley, Bix and Greys Court

Despite the forecast of heavy rain, fifteen walkers turned up at Henley-on-Thames on a rather cold and cloudy Easter Sunday. This was quite a contrast to the recent long spell of sunny and dry weather we'd been enjoying.

Once the train had arrived, bringing a few of our walkers, we set off from the station down to the waterfront, which we followed as far as the bridge before heading into the town. We headed north along the main road before joining end of the Oxfordshire Way - a 68 mile long distance path from Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire to Henley-on-Thames.

After the steep ascent onto The Mount, the path through the deer park took a more gentle ascent, past Henley Park to Crockmore Farm, totalling 100m (330ft) of ascent from Henley town-centre. Of course this meant a steep descent of 80m (260ft) into the village of Middle Assendon.

No sooner than we entered Middle Assendon, we left it again on an uphill tree-lined footpath. Apart from a few drops, we'd escaped the predicted rain so far, but now it began to rain quite heavily. Hoods went up, over-trousers were donned, and we carried on regardless.

The tree-lined footpath led us onto a lane, which continued uphill to the tiny village of Bix, 70m (230ft) above Middle Assendon. Passing the Bix Manor Farm and joined the Chiltern Way - a long distance footpath that runs through the Chiltern Hills, passing through parts of the counties of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire.

The Chiltern Way snaked through farmland, woodlands full of flowering bluebells, and through the grounds of Greys Court. The rain stopped as we reached Greys Court, which looked busy with a full car park and plenty of visitors enjoying their Easter holiday.

Leaving Greys Court, we stopped for lunch by a sports field in the village of Greys Green. The rain held off while we ate our packed lunches. Apart from a few brief showers the rain held off for the rest of the walk and, luckily for us, the real storm came along after we'd gone home.

Once the picnic was over, we continued on the Chiltern Way for a short distance before leaving it for another footpath, which took us through Rotherfield Greys and eventually back to Henley. We entered Henley near the college and then walked through the streets back into the town centre. See our route on Bing Maps.

Unusually for us, we decided against a pub stop in Henley as we were rather wet and muddy. This is not normally a problem when we visit country pubs but we thought we might feel out of place in a town pub full of people enjoying their Sunday lunch.

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