There had been a walk in Theale planned for Sunday 19th May, but the leader cancelled it on hearing that there were road closures on the M4 between J11 and J12 that weekend. As there was now a gap in our programme for the weekend, I thought I'd recycle a walk I'd done before and put it on the Saturday instead.
Six of us (mostly local to the Kingsclere area) met up at White Hill (just south of Kingsclere) for an 8½ mile walk. There would have been a seventh, but his journey was seriously affected by the road closures and he eventually abandoned it.
Although the skies were cloudy, it was warm with very little breeze, and apart from a tiny sprinkling of raindrops at the start, the walk was dry.
We set off from the car park at White Hill and followed the Wayfarer's Walk across Cannon Heath Down and Watership Down, stopping to look at the Richard Adams memorial tree. At Nuthanger Down, we descended into Sydmonton. We followed the footpath through the well-kept gardens and buildings of the Sydmonton estate.
There were a lot of lambs lying along the side of the drive as we walked along it. Most jumped up and moved away as we got close, but there were a few braver lambs that stayed put and just eyed us up as we walked past them.
A sharp left turn took us towards Wergs Farm and onto a quiet lane. Following this to a crossroads, we were now on a tree-lined track, leading steadily uphill.
As we emerged from the wood, we could see Beacon Hill and Highclere to our west. We decided to have our lunch-stop on a patch of grass facing that view. (We could also see the busy A34 road in the valley between us and Beacon Hill.)
After lunch, we re-joined the Wayfarer's Walk and finished our uphill section at Ladle Hill. After a quick vote, we decided not to walk around the Iron-Age Hill-Fort, as we'd all seen it before. Instead, we continued to follow the Wayfarer's Walk eastward.
Soon we were at Nuthanger Down again, but instead of just following our original outward route, we took a little detour to Ashley Warren Farm before returning to the Wayfarer's Walk near the Richard Adams tree and then retracing our outward route back to White Hill. See our route on Google Maps.
Thanks go to Emma and Rob for leading this walk at short notice.
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