Sunday 2nd July was pleasantly cool compared with June's unusually high temperatures. Ten of us (including two visitors from other groups and a newcomer trying us out) met up in the car park on Streatley Hill. The walk started be descending through Goring and Streatley golf course and joining Rectory Road, which is part of The Ridgeway national trail. We followed this westward and upward onto the downs.
After a couple of miles, we left The Ridgeway turning north-east through Town Copse and into Unhill Wood. It was obvious from our surroundings that 'Unhill' did not mean 'not hilly' so I looked it up. It is an old English word meaning to uncover or reveal. This sort of made sense, as we got brief but frequent views across the valley to Ham Wood and then Moulsford Downs as we walked along the path through Unhill Wood.
Crossing the road on Shortlands Hill, we were shouted at by a cyclist hurtling down the hill towards us at a phenomenal speed. He was recklessly going flat-out down hill, perhaps to achieve his personal best top speed, but he would not have been able to stop if there had been something in the road that didn't respond to his shouting.
Now heading for Moulsford, we stopped along the path to have our packed lunches and enjoy the views of this rural part of the Thames Valley. After lunch, we headed into Mouslford village and then down Ferry Lane, where we joined the Thames Path by the Beetle and Wedge riverside inn and restaurant.
We passed some fancy houses that backed onto the river and pondered on how much these properties must be worth. We could only dream of moving in to one of these places without the help of a substantial lottery win.
Heading south along the Thames Path we left Moulsford behind us and covered a mile or so before reaching Cleeve Lock. Here we watched a boat entering the lock and observed people carrying their paddle-boards and kayaks along the towpath from one side of the lock to the other.
A bit further south of Cleeve Lock, the Thames Path leaves the river to skirt around The Swan at Streatley hotel and restaurant. Here we took the opportunity to have refreshments in their riverside garden, which was nice.
Leaving The Swan at Streatley, we followed the narrow and ancient High Street up to the junction with Reading and Wallingford Roads. Crossing at the lights by The Bull pub, we walked up the road a bit before branching off through a small close and then a gate, to the foot of the steep hill up Lardon Chase. This was hard work, but the views of Streatley, Goring and Cleeve from the top were our reward. Following the path along the top took us back to the car park. See our route on Google Maps.
Thank you to Rosy for leading this walk.
On Sunday 1st July, six of us quite literally kicked off the BWW 11th birthday celebrations at Wokingham Family Golf Centre. None of us had ever played Foot Golf before and the more familiar looking adventure golf course looked tempting, being similar to what we probably played on holidays when we were younger.
The weather that morning was unpromising with a steady drizzle but by the time we tee'd off (in golf parlance) it had cleared up and turned into a pleasantly summers day with a cool breeze and an occasional glimmer of sun.
We probably could have all gone round in one group but being newbies, we dutifully complied with the rule that no more than 5 could play in any group and split ourselves into two groups of three. We had great fun negotiating the fairways (the hole lengths ranging between 60 and 160 yards in length) and trying to kick the ball in the hole in as few shots as we could.
Leaving the tee off area were natural obstacles in the form of tall rough grass either side of the grass fairways and patches of rough ground in front of the greens with more unmown grass. People finding the rough either took a penalty to get out or hopefully hacked the ball out a few yards in Tiger Woods style (with our foot of course, not a 9 iron).
Having reached the greens, we were confronted with artificial greens with slight and subtle undulations in the manner of St Andrews with the pace of billiard tables and a slightly awkward breeze. This meant that seemingly good “putts” veered off course at the last moment and went off the green.
There was a fine margin between achieving a par score of 3 or 4 (which we occasionally achieved with woops and roars all round!) or more frequently we battled gamely to get a score in single figures before the course-imposed maximum score of 10 kicked in (if you excuse the pun).
Lots of fun was had by all and afterwards we settled at the nearby café for lunch and drinks, and some friendly socialising. Thanks for everyone who came along for their Foot Golf efforts and their friendly chat and banter on and off the course. Maybe, just maybe, we might repeat this event next year!
More details on the next social event will be shared soon. Let's hope the weather continues to be accommodating as it was today.
Thank you to Richard for organising this social event and writing it up, and to Emma for the photos.
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