For the remaining eight days and 105 miles of this national trail, Three Points of the Compass is joined by Mission Control, who has stipulated good accommodation and good food. We hold out hope of a few decent pints of beer too…

Goring to Sonning 15.5 miles (24.5km)

Mrs Three Points of the Compass, aka Mission Control, joined me on one of the UK’s National Trails in 2022. It was quite a bit different to others I have walked. Not only does the Thames Path follow a river, from source to sea(ish), but there is barely any ascent. Mission Control, who doesn’t normally accompany me on trails, nor least because she has no desire to carry a pack and camp, stipulated that it was a holiday. So backpacking was out of the question. As a result, we booked via a baggage company to take care of accommodation and transport logistics. In 2022, we started in Kemble and walked the western half of the Thames Path, 87.5 miles to Goring, vowing to return…

It is now June 2023 and we are back. The two of us travelled here by train yesterday with the intention of completing the remaining 105 miles, the eastern half of the Thames Path. Again utilising the same baggage company we used last year.

Our accommodation prior to setting off this morning was Melrose Cottage in lovely Goring-on-Thames. This meant wheeling suitcases from the mainline railway station in Goring yesterday, about half a mile to our night’s halt. No great hardship and we are now not expecting to have to take these more than a few metres until travelling home in nine days time. Packed inside the suitcases was my standard Osprey day pack while Mrs Three Points of the Compass favours a 6lt hip pack from Alpkit. For a decent sized town, situated in a prime location, Goring lacks much in the way of pubs or restaurants. The pub we stayed at last year closed a few months ago. We visited one of the two remaining pubs, en route to the sole Tandoori restaurant in the vicinity. A popular place, the food was OK. Then a browse of the guidebook followed by an early night.

For a trail known as having no ascent, dropping steadily in height as the Thames wends its way through chalk hills eastward, today had a couple of surprising and slightly unexpected climbs. Nothing particularly onerous, but enough to open the lungs. I enjoyed the variety. But be aware that a great many cyclists use today’s section of trail, whether permitted or not, some are extraordinarily courteous,  others, ‘ahem’, not so.

Today’s section is pretty undemanding. Outside the few conurbations,  it is mostly a series of shaded paths, open meadows stuffed with buttercups, geese and goslings taking over paths, cyclists, dogwalkers, youths smoking joints, expensive riverside properties,  complete with equally as expensive watercraft and the cheapest of refurbished boats occupied by new agers and students.

Lunch was a couple of bars we had stuffed into my pack, together with a couple of bananas snaffled from breakfast. No pubs or cafes are passed until Caversham Lock.

Our halt tonight is the 16th century Crown Inn at Playhatch. A village described by Jerome K. Jerome in ‘Three Men in a Boat’ as a ‘fairy-like little nook‘. As Playhatch is slightly off trail, we met our transport at the Bull Inn in Sonning just 150 metres from the river.

We left our accommodation in Goring at nine this morning and took about half an hour to return to trail. Our supposed 15.5 miles was completed at five in the afternoon.

Having battled through traffic and arrived at our accommodation for a welcome pint of Brakspear Oxford Gold, there were a few problems with our booking, too tiresome to recount here and eventually sorted out, and then to our very comfortable room. Showers, change, prep for tomorrow, then into the pub for terrific steak and chips, F&C, and a bottle of Shiraz. A good first day back on trail.

The Thames Path- National Trail

• The Thames Path
• The Thames Path: Kemble to Cricklade
• The Thames Path: Cricklade to Lechlade
• The Thames Path: Lechlade to Tadpole Bridge
• The Thames Path: Tadpole Bridge to Bablock Hythe
• The Thames Path: Bablock Hythe to Osney Bridge, Oxford
• The Thames Path: Osney Bridge, Oxford to Abingdon
• The Thames Path: Abingdon to Shillingford/Warborough
• The Thames Path: Shillingford/Warborough to Goring
• The Thames Path: Goring to Sonning
• The Thames Path: Sonning to Marlow
• The Thames Path: Marlow to Windsor
• The Thames Path: Windsor to Chertsey
• The Thames Path: Chertsey to Hampton Wick/Kingston-on-Thames
• The Thames Path: Hampton Wick/Kingston-on-Thames to Putney
• The Thames Path: Putney to Tower Bridge
• The Thames Path: Tower Bridge to Woolwich Foot Tunnel