Twyford Circular
12 September. In spite of some confusion about the disruption to train services, nine walkers arrived on time at Twyford Station to join the walk leaders and we set off across a playing field towards Ruscombe, taking great care along the winding B road with several blind bends. From there we walked across fields to Hurst and got the only four stiles of the walk under our belts. Arriving at the lunch stop, some picnicked in the churchyard of St Nicholas’s, while others tried the food at the 16th century Castle Inn opposite and, after, we all admired the skills of three players on the adjacent bowling green.
The afternoon’s walk headed across farmland and along Sandford Lane to the Activity Centre at Dinton Pastures Country Park. Here we walked around the northern shore of Black Swan Lake, where a few of us at the front were lucky enough to glimpse a ferret run across the path to the lakeside, before we turned off to skirt Sandford Lake, stopping to take a peek of it from the bird hide. Our route then followed a longish peaceful stretch of the Loddon, a 28 mile river, rising at Basingstoke and flowing into the Thames at Wargrave. Along this section the river splits into two, the west channel being called The Old River. At Whistley Bridge we left the river and passed by paddocks with white horses and ponies, and a long parade of young horse riders along the road. We then skirted another of the large lakes that lie between the two river channels.
After passing under the Great Western Mainline Railway we finally walked into the Loddon Nature Reserve and rejoined the eastern channel of the river, exiting back to Twyford by the apartment blocks on the site of the former flour mill. From there it was pavement walking to the station through the sleepy town, just in time for those returning to London to catch the delayed Elizabeth Line train by mid afternoon.
Linda, with thanks to Sigrid for photos
