Pete's Walks- Goring and Hartslock (page 1 of 4)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
I did this 5.1 mile walk on Sunday, 17th May 2022. It was a repeat of a walk I did in May 2022, and again the purpose of doing this route was so that I could call in at the Hartslock nature reserve to see the wonderful orchids there. Much of this report is 'cut and paste' from my report from 2022.
I parked in the car park in Goring (it cost £2.80 for five hours, 20p more than last year), and started walking about 10.25am. I took the short path from the car park (past the public toilets) into the centre of Goring and turned left along the road. Just before the road reached a bridge (over the river Thames), I went down a slip road on the left, passing Goring Mill to reach the river. Here I turned left and followed a path along the river bank.
The road through Goring
Looking under the road bridge to Weirs across the Thames
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
After about three quarters of a mile the path entered some waterside pastures. In the second one I spotted a male Egyptian Goose on the river bank, which dropped into the river and soon joined the rest of its family. I could soon see Gatehampton Bridge ahead, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to take his Great Western railway across the Thames. After the pastures, the path continued through a narrow meadow, and then passed under an arch of the railway bridge (there was a pill-box here, which I don't remember noticing before). The path then ran close to the river for a few hundred yards, before turning left and ending at a T-junction with a bridleway, close to Gatehampton Manor.
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
View towards Gatehampton Bridge, originally engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as part of his Great Western Railway
The path beside the Thames
Gatehampton Bridge
Pill-box by the railway bridge
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
The path beside the Thames
The path after it turns left near Gatehampton Manor