Our latest walk was something a little different to the usual. Yes, we had our usual hike; this time being a generally easy 5-6 miles stroll from Shiplake station but we were also planning to arrange to meet up with our friends from Oxon and also Chilterns groups for an extended picnic and participate in some games perhaps. The event was the brainchild of the Walks Co-Coordinator from the Oxfordshire 20-30’s group. Along with the Chilterns 20-30’s group we were approached earlier in the year about arranging this get together, all of us were enthused with the idea. Possibly due to numbers it made sense to try to arrange two walks. After some debate in deciding a location, we considered Henley-on-Thames as a great location for meet point of the event. There are plenty of fields for us to retire to by the river along with toilet and ice cream options nearby as well. It was decided that the Oxon and Chilterns groups would meet up from Mill End car park near Hambleden while we would do a little shorter walk from Shiplake and both groups would meet to share our picnics at around 12.30am.
The Berkshire Group had sixteen attendees today, with some people driving to start point and others caught the train. Around half of us had contributed something to the picnic, collaborating ideas via the use of social media.
Today’s route took us out of Shiplake past what I have dubbed “Creosote Alley” in the past as the fence posts we go past always seem to absolutely pong of the stuff. It didn’t today though. We eventually arrived at the busy A4155 and having safely negotiated the crossing we headed towards Upper Bolney House and towards the hamlet of Mays Green. Unusually for me I had not completed a recce of the walk but I had done it before in the opposite direction and also led other walks on some of these paths we walking in familiar territory.
Having stopped for a drink stop it was soon becoming a very warm morning. We had to be patient briefly while we crossed Henley Golf Course. As I hadn’t done a recce I was a little uncertain of the precise location of the footpath but headed in the general direction as indicated by the way marker and everything was fine.
I had graded the walk easy but I failed to take into account of a fairly steep but brief hill that we had to descend through beach woodland down to Harpsden Bottom. We were greeted with a short road section where we had to be mindful that there were a number of cyclists whizzing by (they were taking part in the Henley triathlon). Once we arrived in the rural village of Harpsden we left the tarmac and made a steepish climb, stopping at the top for water stop and take in some lovely views. We continued on to Henley via Harpsden Heights. I checked my phone to see that I had a missed call and text message from the walk leader from the Oxon group. The others had arrived.
We joined the Oxon and Chiltern groups, exchanged hellos, settled down and started to tuck into our picnics sharing our food amongst the large group. It did become bit like pass the parcel at times. Hard to say, but it looked like total numbers were approximately around 40 between the two groups; too many ideally for a single walk.
We had originally planned to join forces in a game of cricket or rounder’s perhaps. Unfortunately the necessary equipment was left behind but have no fear as we had a back up plan up our sleeves. A couple of us included myself and brought along a Frisbee/aerobie so once we had finished stuffing our faces a few of us started throwing both about with varying degrees of success. On the odd occasion we had to delve into the nettles to rescue our toys while at times some of us (well, me) were completely unnecessarily diving about. Before long we had enough of that and a proper semi competitive game broke out of what can be best described as Frisbee-Handball. We split into two teams, hat wearers v non hat wearers. About 14 of us took part with the others sitting down observing our efforts. With the good use of some fine interchanging of quick passing the non hat wearers clinched the game possibly 3-1 (no-one was really counting). I sent much of the game in goal, keeping a clean sheet. A resolute defensive performance by the team it has to be said.
We retired back to the others and sat down and chatted amongst ourselves for maybe a further twenty minutes or so. A few took advantage of the ice cream option nearby. Having decided this picnic/games meet up was a success we hope to repeat event next year.
Before long the groups said cheerio. Our return journey was not too long, maybe one and a half miles along the Thames Path, passing through Henley Lock that was fairly congested on this glorious summer day. We arrived back in Shiplake in time for the 3.11pm train back to Reading. A decision had to be made and most of us decided to skip that train departure and head to the nearby pub instead. It meant I could have two pints today’s.
We made our respective homebound journeys reflecting on a lovely day out socialising with our friends from some of our surrounding counties.