Cane End (Withy Copse and Deadman's Lane)

Withy Copse

A third walk this week seems a bit excessive, but my average step count is a bit down this month because I strained my knee and had to rest it for a few days. Today was the last chance to boost the step count and there was just time to do this four mile walk north of Reading after a shopping trip.

The walk starts by what used to be the Fox pub on the A4074 to Oxford (now a restaurant) and quite quickly you are in Withy Copse, after having to take one of those embarrassing paths that goes right through someone's garden. The path through the copse is unusually wide and green and this really was a very pleasant part of the walk.

You emerge to walk along a short length of road and then turn onto a track through woodland and then beside fields to cross the A3074. The next section along the possibly aptly named Deadman's Lane was not much fun: the road was busy in the late afternoon and if was often necessary to hop onto a highish back to avoid the traffic.

After half a mile you escape onto another woodland track. Somewhere in the woods I lost the route - the first time this has happened for ages. I think I was probably only a few hundred yards out when I emerged by a field, but I decided to head for the sound of the A3074 rather than try to find the planned path towards Nuney Green. This worked well, but left me with a sense of anti climax.

From: Rambling for pleasure around Reading (first series) by David Bounds for the East Berkshire Ramblers

Distance: 4.5 miles.

Map: Explorer 159 (Reading, Wokingham and Pangbourne).

Rating: two and a half stars. Too much road, although Withy Copse was lovely.


Reflections

This walk and yesterday's have led me to want to add something to my list of the factors which make for a good walk. That something is an absence of noise, especially traffic noise. This is probably part of a broader concept of tranquility or even isolation. But certainly in the south, isolation is a tall order - there are almost always at least individual cottages or farms on the route or in sight. But getting away from the traffic is a more realistic goal - and conversely, many a pleasant walk is diminished by the sound coming from a nearby (or not so nearby) main road or motorway.

However, as today showed there is also a downside to this: it was traffic noise which gave me complete confidence in the direction back to where I had stared the walk. Without it there would have been a bit more uncertainty. I have a compass, maybe this is a sign that it is time to put it in my haversack - and learn to use it!


Flower of the day

I saw a wonderfully dense clump of Corn Camomile in the corner of a field of crops. Just as well because overall there was little to be seen.