Thames Walk, Day 7
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
442
555
Trip End
Ongoing
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Reading, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Day 7
Start - Finish
Cholsey - Reading
Distance - 26.1 Kilometres
To be honest with you all, I was feeling like shit and we had 26 K's to walk. Trust me, just starting off from Cholsey was hard. No it was fucking hard, and Lucy just walked off and left me !!!
We walked on, and I started to feel better !!! There were a few pill boxes around, hidden this time. A couple of hours into the walk, it started to drizzle, and then pour, so donned the gortexes and carried on. The Thames was also getting wider and we saw our first working barge boat. It was quite interesting as the Thames use to carry loads of goods many years ago. We also saw our first bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Built in red brick, the Gatehampton Railway Bridge was built in 1838. It was nice, but we couldn't get a good shot of it !!!
After walking for six days, we finally came to our first hill. The Chillterns come all the way down to the Thames so we had to climb up. It was quite nice ands dry and up at the top in Whitchurch-on-Thames we saw another wild deer. It was the biggest we had seen so we took the snaps and movd on into the village, and what a lovely place it was. In the church of St Marys, we were given a tour by a local. Amazing. OUtside was the second toll bridge on the Thames. This one cost twenty pence, realisticall it wasn't worth four times more than the one in Swinford.
According to the book, at Mapledurham lock there is a sign that states how many more miles to go till the end, but the track was blocked and we were forced away. The trail actually moved us into Tilehurst. There was no track, just roads and houses !!! Eventually we did come back onto the track beside the Thames but now it was muddy, it was hard going. After a couple of K's we arrived at the Thames Side Promenade. There were fields to our left where the Reading festival was being set up and over the river were some massive houses. Trust me, the boatsheds were bigger than our flat !!!
Thirty minutes later, we were in Reading and the end of day Seven, the halfway mark, so we jumped on a train and went back to Cholsey and drove home.
And Finally
Total Kilometres so far - 171.6
Bridges Seen - 8
Bridges Total - 108
Locks Seen - 3
Locks Total - 21
