The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
ON RIVER TRAIL
In its 25th anniversary year, Hannah Stephenson samples a walking holiday on the Thames Path National Trail.
On a Saturday morning training session a few weeks before the famous Henley Royal Regatta, the Thames is awash with rowers. Coxes are shouting words of encouragement while trainers pedal bikes along the riverbank, yelling instructions. This is the Thames Path at its most active. It makes dry-land observers like me feel positively exhausted.
For those who prefer a less frenetic pace, much of the Thames Path National Trail, a 184-mile journey which follows the river from
its source near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier at Charlton, south east London, cuts a more serene environment,
where wildlife forms the heart of the action, birdsong is the predominant sound and wildflower meadows hem the pathways.
In its 25th anniversary year, I’m walking 50-plus miles of what some consider to be the prettiest stretch of the Thames Path, from Oxford, the city of ‘dreaming spires’, to the lively Georgian market town and foodie paradise of Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
My journey takes me through some gorgeous old English towns and villages, with stopovers at the sleepy picturepostcard village of Goring and the buzzing, riverside-chic Henley on Thames. On this Trails of the Riverbank self-guided walking trip with Inntravel, idyllic boutique hotels have been arranged en route, with baggage transfers meaning I only need to carry a necessary rucksack.
Following the flat meandering of the river, walking here is not difficult. But sturdy boots are needed to tackle the softened terrain from overnight rain, which has left some areas pretty muddy.
Two nights in each hotel – at Oxford, Goring and Henley – gives walkers the opportunity to explore the host locations as well as continue their journey, with the help of a hugely detailed guide which also gives easier options of shorter routes, tells you what to look out for as well as suggesting reliable watering holes at which to take a break.
Because of the distances involved due to
I FIND RURAL RELAXATION – ARABLE FIELDS ON ONE SIDE, THE GENTLE FLOWING RIVER ON THE OTHER
the winding nature of the Thames, some bus and train travel is factored in, either to reach your destination more quickly, or to return to the hotel from a linear route.
Five minutes away from the commercial hubbub of riverside villages and towns, including Benson and Wallingford, I find rural relaxation – arable fields on one side, the gentle flowing river on the other, red kites forming graceful punctuations in the skyline.
The landscape on this trail is ever-changing, from shady riverside cut-outs where cow parsley bobs above bristling nettles, to wide open fields with big skies, where walkers follow the path between waist-length pinkhued grasses.
There’s time to explore the churches and old streets of pretty towns and villages including Sonning, home of the Clooneys, and Shiplake, where poet Alfred Lord Tennyson married Emily Selwood in 1850.
We venture to the Thames-side marsh of Cholsey, home to kingfishers, warblers and corn buntings, while iridescent blue banded demoiselle damselflies flit between foliage and water. You might even see glow worms.
Vessels of all shapes and sizes grace the river, from the punts in Oxford, to the schmoozing cruisers and classic canal boats.
History is never far away from the riverbank, either.
Deep grey sombre concrete pillboxes secreted in lush foliage in woodlands or placed in more open situations, are testament to the river defences manned by the home guard in the Second World War.
Castles at Oxford and Wallingford should satiate medieval history buffs, while walkers can also admire the quirks of architecture, from a post-modern interpretation of an Egyptian house known as Sphinx Hill – on the way to Goring, to a small-scale railway running through the grounds of a huge garden and its accompanying scaled-down station. Stories on the river also abound. I am told by one Henley local that the swish boathouse on the far bank is just part of a vast estate owned by a Russian billionaire, who paid gazillions for Park Place, a country house incorporating 200 acres of parkland, listed monuments, houses, cottages and stables.
And then we’re back to rowing focus, first at Henley and then at my final stop, Marlow, which is bustling with its own regatta.
It’s the first real crowd I’ve seen for almost a week, and it feels a little overwhelming trying to negotiate the hubbub of waterside competitors and picnicking families.
Time to get the bus back to Henley. My feet are tired from my 50-mile jaunt, but as I see the rowers powering to the finish lines, my efforts feel like a drop in the ocean.