🥾 Walk 451 - Watlington and Christmas Common

A walk planned for last autumn - a victim of the November lockdown and then the Winter lockdown - finally happened on a cool, sunny Sunday in early May. So, six months later than planned, eight Berkshire Weekend Walkers set off from Watlington's car park for their 7-mile walk, beginning with an exploration of the town centre.

Watlington is a very small town. We walked past some attractive cottages and a few (closed) cafes, past lamp posts colourfully decorated by crocheting members of the town's Women's Institute, past one pub and one school and we were in the flat countryside surrounding the town.

Heading back south in the direction of Watlington Hill, minor roads and a short section of the Ridgeway then brought us to our only climb of the walk as we trudged up the long hill to Christmas Common.

Walking through carpets of bluebells in Lower Deans Wood then brought us to our lunch spot just below Watlington House. Walking through the field gate, we found ourselves in a meadow, at the top of a hill with the ground falling steeply away from us. We could see for miles. Red kites circled high above.

The walk leader may have gained marks for his choice of lunch spot but he quickly lost them, thanks to a poorly completed risk assessment form. Unfortunately, for the leader, his risk assessment had failed to identify the potential hazards posed by the experienced red kites of Watlington Hill circling high above. Looking on the bright side, he had eaten most of his cheese and tomato sandwich before one fast-thinking, swift-diving kite ripped it from his grasp!

Lunch over, we left the kite crime scene and walked - or ran - down the hill to briefly re-join the Ridgeway, before field paths took us back towards Watlington. Soon after walking by six tiny, turbo-charged ducklings in a pond we were back in the town. Past the parish church and then past the brightly-knitted lamp posts, past the attractive cottages and the few (closed) cafes and we were back where we had started. See our route on Google Maps.

Thank you to Nigel for leading the walk and for writing it up.

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