A Visit to Dinton Pastures and Hurst, 9 miles, easy

Calendar

When:

May 2, 2021 @ 10:45 am

2021-05-02T10:45:00+01:00

2021-05-02T11:00:00+01:00

Where:

Twyford Station

Contact:

Jason

Walk

Booking Required easy Limited Spaces (11) public transport Walk

This walk is limited to 11 walkers + the walk leader.
Do not turn up for a walk without prior booking, else we will have to turn you away
Follow all safety advice given by the walk leader
It is recommended you bring hand sanitizer or gloves in case you need to touch gates/stiles/etc
If you or someone else from your household has COVID-19 symptoms, please do not attend.

We will meet at Twyford station for a 10.45am start. If you are coming from Reading, take the 10.30am train arriving at Twyford at 10.35am. If the train is late, the start of the walk will be too. Parking is available at the station (charges will apply).

As we leave Twyford station we head up into Twyford and heading out towards the Loddon Nature Reserve and the River Loddon. When I did the recce for this walk recently we saw some ducks with their babies so hopefully we will get to see some more.

We will follow the River Loddon before going through part of Dinton Pastures Country Park. Dinton Pastures covers 450 acres of land (don’t worry we won’t be covering all of this, just a part of it!)

The country park is part of the river Loddon’s flood plain and so makes a good source of gravel, between 1969 and 1979 an extensive gravel extraction program was carried out. Much of the gravel was used for the M4 and the A329(M). Dinton Pastures was opened to the public in 1979.

After we have walked through part of the Country Park, walked past the people rowing their boats around the lake we head out towards the quiet village of Hurst.

Once we have walked through the rolling fields near Hurst we start making our way back towards our starting route and heading back into Twyford.

Please be aware that these paths could be busy at times to please be considerate to other path users and step to the side to let people past – but also don’t forget to say ‘HI’ or Thank You’.

This is an easy graded walk as it’s mainly flat. Please bring a drink and some lunch for the walk.

Book a place on this walk by completing the Google Form. We will only use the contact information you provide to get in touch about the walk, or to share if requested with NHS Test and Trace.

If after booking, you need to cancel your place on the walk, please email walkbookings@berkshirewalkers.co.uk so that we can make your place available to someone else.

Please only contact the leader with queries about the walk or if you are delayed on the day.

Booking onto a walk

Most walks do not require advance booking, and you can just turn up on the day. We encourage those comfortable with Meetup to indicate there that you plan to come though, so that others can see there will be plenty of people there – this really helps to encourage new members to come along.
For the few which still have limited numbers, this is handled via Meetup. Follow the link to a walk’s Meetup page (or press 🎟 Register / 🎟 Tickets / 🎟), and mark yourself as attending.
Social and other events may have their own booking system – please see the event description.

Pace Guide

Gentle: led at a gentle pace with regular short breaks for water or rest. Should be suitable for anyone capable of the distance. (Expect 2–2.5 mph.)
Medium: led at an intermediate pace with fewer breaks but still suitable for most walkers. (Expect 2.5–3 mph.)
Fast: led at a quick pace with minimal breaks. May be a challenge for those with less fitness. (Expect 3 mph+.)

Speeds quoted are only a rough guide, including time spent on short water/rest stops and negotiating stiles/gates/roads etc. but not that spent on longer lunch or pub stops.