East End Girls on the Thames

June's walk saw the East End girls on another section of the Thames Path, this time from Tilehurst, west of Reading to Cholsey. It was a 12.5 mile route that had a mile trek to the station at the end.

This photo was taken at Pangbourne, from the bridge over the river - it was so still and peaceful. The bridge is a toll bridge but thankfully not to pedestrians.

We had our morning coffee in a lovely deli/coffee shop in the village.

I only noticed when I downloaded the photos, that this one tells a lot of the story so far. This was taken at Mapledurham Lock where we had a loo and refreshment break - vital to walkers wellbeing!

It has to be pointed out though that we did come from further than Central London. In fact rather than starting at the Thames Barrier, we began our quest at the Woolwich foot tunnel and have to date covered approx 103 miles of the 184 mile National Trail - http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/.

Our next section in July will see us pick up the trail at Cholsey and walk to Culham. We hope to have finished by the end of September although the 4 last sections will necessitate a long weekend as public transport is virtually non exsistent.

As usual we had the great walking weather we come to expect and great view and scenery to enjoy.

It was great to welcome Claire Chapman (on the right with Cajsa and Chris) on her first walk and hopefully it won't be her last. It was also good to have our local expert Lindsey, who was able to get us to just the right pub in Goring at lunch time, one we wouldn't necessarilly have found on our own. Thanks.

The chips were great and eating in the frest air is so good , as is knowing that you've earned these and are going to walk them off again after.

Whitchurch on Thames, on the other side of the bridge from Pangbourne, is very pretty. It has a beautiful church - here are the girls in the church yard.

The Thames Path, contrary to what you may believe is not all flat. On this walk, we left the water at Whitchurch on Thames, such a pretty place, and headed up and along a ridge where the path, at times, followed a roller coaster style.

Here's Lindsey, Cajsa and Teresa leading the way up to the ridge. Great to get a different view of the Thames from here, it's changed so much through the course of it's journey.

I wonder what we'll be doing once we finish this challenge.