Monday January 22, 2007

One and a half walks..

We took off to Mortimer on Saturday to do a walk around the village. Our first problem was the pub we parked by was closed for refurbishement. The car park was by the first of two ponds in the village called the Fairground Ponds. An interesting history board told what had happened to them over the years. The earliest history tells of when they were used as drinking water for animals who drovers moved across the countryside. When steam lorries were used to move animals they would top up their water supply at these ponds later on. Cart wheels were also soaked in the water during the process of fitting the metal rim to them. Both ponds were also much larger than they are today but never very deep as pictures of horses standing in them show. Back to the walk we passed by the war memorial and turned left. A short distance down the road and we turned right off the road and went through bracken, holly bushes and trees. As we came out of this tunnel the heavens opened with heavy rain and hail. We waited for a while but then turned around back to the car.

On the way back to the house we stopped at a pub called The Magpie and Parrot. This is what pubs used to be like years ago when they where just rooms in peoples houses. The pub does not do food or any fancy snacks apart from plain crisps. Free peanuts were in bowls on the tables. It was nice to know there are some real pubs still around. The pub has beer festivals and other events. Back home it was time to give the Grape and Wysteria their yearly pruning.

On the Sunday after an overnight storm and with strong cold winds blowing we went to do a walk between Wargrave and Crazies Hill electing to start it at the latter place. We had a drink at the Horns and after going back to the car to put our walk boots on we spotted this old Rolls Royce in the car park.

We left the pub and walked past its school and village hall. Also visible was the old Henley Town Hall moved to its new position in 1897. We carried straight on and just by the pretty Rebecca's Cottage we turned off down a footpath. Just after the cottage was house with its own small gauge railway in the garden with a bridge and cutting. Before reaching its famous well we turned right again through a small copse. After our path ran out we dropped down to the road and then turned off towards Bottom Bowles Wood picking up Green Lane. Just before entering another small wood we took the route of a permitted path which will no longer be available after September this year. We crossed Blakes road in Upper Wargrave and after crossing two recreation grounds we walked through a long winding road through a large housing estate. Crossing Blakes road again we headed for distant trees over another field walking along Highfield Road before turning off to go over two large fields. Behind us were some trees - Oak I think.

Here our luck was to run out. After going through part of a Golf course and going down and up out of a valley we were to turn right on Penny's Lane. Some kind of diversion before had got us horribly lost and we eventually turned up at the road between Henley and Wargrave. We knew two miles up the road it would have us back in Crazies Hill which we plodded along rather cheesed off. A four mile walk ended up being six miler and apart from the exercise was not enjoyable as it might have been.