🥾 Walk 608 - Rotherwick and Sherfield-on-Loddon

When I led my first walk for the Berkshire Weekend Walkers, Saturday 28th October was sunny and bright. Eleven of us met outside the church in Rotherwick, ready for the eight-mile walk. After a short introductory speech, and welcoming a member of the Berkshire Walkers, we set off.

On leaving the church yard, we followed the Brenda Parker Way footpath across a field which arrived at The Rotherwick Patch, a pumpkin farm.

Lots of pumpkins were still in the field and had yet to be collected - a perfect photo opportunity.

We stayed on the Brenda Parker Way, passing farms, crossing footbridges, and finally parting from that path to head towards Sherfield-on-Loddon.

We caught the first glimpse of one of the two golf courses on the route. After following a road between the Sherfield Oaks golf course, we turned right into some woods that had some shelters made in some trees.

After crossing another footbridge, we arrived near Ducketts Farm, where some alpacas were approaching, hoping that we had some tasty treats for them!

At the end of the footpath we crossed over the first of many stiles in this section of the walk, to go into a field where we were nearing another open field ideal for a lunch stop.

After eating our packed lunches and sharing stories of different sweets and biscuits old and new, we set off on the rest of the walk. A brief shower of rain had us all reaching for our waterproof jackets.

After crossing a stile, we walked on a track towards Wildmoor Farm. At the farm we turned right into the most enchanting wooded area, following a stream. Although brief, it felt very magical!

Emerging at the end of the farm was a track that was quite wet and muddy that would take us past our final golf course of Tylney Park.

Horses in paddocks and red kites trying to grab some food were spotted as we walked along the track. Another footbridge through some woodland and we reached a quiet road leading us back towards Rotherwick.

A beautiful Liquidambar tree was spotted through the hedgerow, due to it's leaves turning a beautiful red colour. Three deer were seen playing nearby.

As we reached the road toward Rotherwick, we said goodbye to one of our party who had another engagement. The remaining ten of us crossed over the road onto a footpath back towards some woodland on the outskirts of Hook. We stopped en-route to admire a dead oak tree, which still stood quite majestically amongst the woodland.

Continuing down we skirted Shirlens Copse turning left into some more woodland.

Emerging into a field we then had a small climb alongside Great Nightingales Copse and reached the four finger post. This is where I decided on a short route change due to some extreme mud on the pre-walk. This is also the time when the rain started to fall more decisively.

With our rain jackets back on we turned left and then right towards Runten's Farm.

Back on the Brenda Parker Way we headed along a very muddy and waterlogged footpath to reach The Coach and Horses pub at Rotherwick. Seven of us stayed for a well deserved drink.

Thank you to everyone who came to my first walk as a leader. I was very nervous beforehand but I had done my pre-walk and had my map, and the sense of accomplishment at the end was great!

Please see our route on Google Maps.

Thank you to Emma for leading this walk and writing it up.

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