![\"The](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/thames_goring.jpg\")
Six of us met up on Sunday 11th October in Goring-on-Thames for a 12 mile walk with lots of hills - and a pub-stop! A rare thing for us these days, and the Key reason why this walk had a limit of six people (including the leader).
\nWe left the Orchard Wheel car park and followed the High Street as it crossed the River Thames to Streatley. We followed the Thames Path as it headed north on the west side of the Thames. We didn't see many people on the path, just one lone fisherman, but a few boats passed by on the river.
\nOn reaching Moulsford we left the waterside by the Beetle and Wedge pub. This had been the easy bit of the walk before we started crossing all of those contour lines!
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It was uphill through the village of Moulsford and more uphill as we headed out into countryside and to Shortlands Hill and Kingstanding Hill. Then came a little bit of downhill to Starveall Farm followed by a lovely walk through the valley of Unhill Bottom, with Unhill Wood on the left and North Unhill Bank on the right. Some of trees were sporting leaves of red and yellow.
\nSuddenly the footpath disappeared as we passed from a field of crops into a very recently ploughed field. Luckily the earth was quite dry, but it was still hard work - like walking on a sandy beach. When the footpath returned, it went up a long hill. The path finally levelled out and went into a wood. We found some fallen trees to use as benches to sit on and have our picnic lunch.
\nAfter lunch, we very briefly joined The Ridgeway and left it again to follow a route to Aldworth, where we visited The Bell Inn. We didn't enter the actual pub at all, as there was a desk outside the front door where we ordered and payed for our drinks, which were brought out to us. We carried them to the pub garden, were the tables were appropriately spaced apart - some under cover of a large marquee. There were hand sanitiser dispensers all around and there were outside toilets, so no one (except staff) went into the pub. That's probably as safe as it gets.
\n![\"The](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/thames_streatley.jpg\")
Suitably refreshed, we left Aldworth and crossed a couple of fields into Westridge Green and then descended into a valley where we passed Kiddington Cottage. Here we saw a strange sight - a motorised box made its way across the lawn and approached us quite closely before turning round and trundling back to the house. We think it must have been a robot lawn mower, but it was almost silent and the grass behind it seemed relatively unchanged. Maybe it was sent out to observe us.
\nReaching Rectory Road, we passed Thurle Grange before turning off to cross Goring and Streatley golf course on a very steep path to the top of Streatley hill. The ascent involved ringing a bell at intervals to warn the golfers that we were potentially in their line of fire! We made it to the top without incident.
\nAt the top, we turned sharp left onto Lardon Chase, where we enjoyed some good views before taking the steep descent into Streatley. Emerging near the Bull Inn we crossed the main road and then the Thames on the same bridge as we'd used on the way out. We didn't retrace our outward route exactly, but left the High Street to pass through the grounds of St Thomas's Church and then made our way back to the car park via Station Road. See our route on Google Maps.
\n![\"Where](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/unhill_bottom.jpg\")
During the twelve miles, we'd done about 610 metres (nearly 2000 feet) of ascent in total. My legs and feet were fizzing! We'd been very lucky with the weather, which had been mild for the time of year, and despite the appearance of some grey clouds in the afternoon, not a drop of rain had fallen all day.
\n![\"The](\"https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume34/images/streatley_warren.jpg\")
Thank you to Mike for leading this walk.
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