# 🥾 Walk 476 - Balmore Walk and Sonning Eye

On Saturday 11th September, Alexandra led a semi-urban walk from Reading that visited Balmore Walk and Sonning Eye before returning along the Thames Path. Taking advantage of a recent change to the Ramblers Covid-19 rules, this walk did not require booking in advance. So we waited at the start point to see who turned up.

Eight people (including two visitors) arrived before the published start time, so nine of us started the walk by following the Thames Path for a few hundred yards/metres to the relatively new Christchurch Bridge. This pedestrian and cycle bridge was opened in September 2015 and it has a rather unusual design. It is suspended by cable-stays that are anchored to a single mast on the Christchurch Meadows side of the river. The mast passes through the bridge platform itself.

![Christchurch Bridge, the first bridge on our walk.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/christchurch_bridge.jpg)

We crossed the Thames into Christchurch Meadows and made our way through it, then taking a diagonal path across Westfield Park. Following Westfield Road up to the busy junction with the A4155 and B480, we carefully crossed both of these roads and climbed some steps into Balmore Walk. This grassy high ground commands views over Reading from Earley to Prospect Park.

A bit of road walking brought us to Hemdean Bottom or Bugs Bottom, depending which map you look at! Continuing north and then east, we passed a golf course before a bit more road walking took us through Emmer Green. Next, we crossed a field and arrived at All Saints Church at Dunsden Green. After having a look inside, we carried on to the green, where we stopped for lunch.

![Stopping for our picnic lunch at Dunsden Green.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/dunsden_green_picnic.jpg)

For a day that had started out so overcast, it was warming up nicely, although the previous day's rain had made it rather humid. After lunch, we made the short but steep walk down to The Flowing Spring on the A4155 Henley Road. We stopped here for drinks and sat in the garden, which was being prepared for a wedding reception later that afternoon. The band were setting up their equipment just as we left.

Dodging the cars, we followed Spring Lane to Sonning Eye, crossing Sonning Bridge over the Thames. Joining the Thames Path we passed Sonning Lock and marvelled at the number of different leisure craft on the water. Paddle-boarding is the latest trend, which looks a little precarious to me. Standing up on an oversized surf board while manipulating a paddle strikes me as something almost guaranteed to end in a capsize. We saw one sensible paddle-boarder sitting cross-legged on his board.

![The pub garden of the Flowing Spring.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/flowing_spring_garden.jpg)

Soon we passed Thames Valley Business Park, with it's gleaming pagoda-like buildings and its own lakes. In front of that is Thames Valley Park Nature Reserve where we saw large areas of a plant with strange clustered flowers, some with a white feathery-like material protruding from them. One of our group identified the plants as wild carrots, and we later realised the white material on some of the flowers was in fact goose down that had caught on them as it had blown by. Before long, we were amongst lots of geese and swans. There were feathers everywhere!

Avoiding the hoards of cyclists using the same path, we arrived at Kings Meadow and it was a short distance back to Reading Bridge, where we had started our walk. See our route on Google Maps.

![Group photo taken by Reading Bridge.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/reading_bridge_group.jpg)

*Thank you to Alexandra for leading this walk.*

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