# 🥾 Walk 489 - Whitchurch, Thames Path and Chiltern Way

Clare led a walk for us on Sunday 12th December exploring Whitchurch-on-Thames and Goring Heath. Fourteen of us (including a few from the Berkshire Walkers 20s & 30s group) met outside Pangbourne railway station before heading off to Whitchurch Bridge via a little alley-way that followed the edge of the River Thames.

Crossing the toll bridge, we walked through Whitchurch-on-Thames on the High Street to Hartslock Bridleway. Here we stopped to remove some layers. The weather was surprisingly warm compared with the single-figure temperatures we'd had in recent days.

![A view of Whitchurch-on-Thames from Whitchurch Bridge.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume38/images/whitchurch_from_bridge.jpg)

We had actually been on the Thames Path since leaving Pangbourne, but we only began to follow the river when we reach Hartslock Wood. The path was quite undulating on this, the Chiltern side of the Thames. We continued through this wooded section before leaving the Thames Path at Hattonhill Shaw via a very steep but short stretch onto a small hill with good views to the north.

So far, the route of this walk had matched a walk I've led here before, but now it was to take its own course into territory not familiar to me. We followed a narrow track up to Cockpit Plantation where we joined the Chiltern Way.

![An undulating path through Hartslock Wood.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume38/images/hartslock_wood.jpg)

It wasn't long before we left the Chiltern Way at Coombe End Farm, heading through Cold Harbour and Blackbird's Bottom. We stopped for our picnic lunch in a field near Cray's Pond and the Oratory Prep School.

After lunch we made our way through Little Oaken Wood, which was both picturesque and muddy! Looping round, we exited the wood heading south through Goring Heath and Collins End. We passed several farms, one of which had goats that appeared to be playing that school-yard game Off Ground Chase, in which you can only be tagged if your feet are touching the ground.

![Clambering up the steep side of Hattenhill Shaw.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume38/images/hattenhill_shaw.jpg)

At Collins End, we briefly re-joined the Chiltern Way to leave it again at Path Hill, where we crossed through Pathhill Farm and then descended though woodland to Boze Down. Here we found several fields of alpacas at Bozedown Farm.

Soon we were back in Whitchurch, where we stopped off at the Greyhound Inn for refreshment. It was then a matter of retracing our outward route across Whitchurch Bridge and back to Pangbourne Station. See our route on Google Maps. We'd done 17.5km (10.8 miles) and 628m (2050 ft) of ascent in total. A good work-out!

![Some goats standing on things. Not sure why!](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume38/images/strange_goats.jpg)

![Lots of alpacas at Bozedown Farm.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume38/images/boze_down_alpacas.jpg)

*Thank you to Clare for leading this walk.*

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