POF22-Pensioner-on-Foot BLOG Day #10

Posted on 2 August 2022 by Alan Francis — 545 Comments ↓

Day 10 – July 31, 2022

Hi guys…here is today’s update on our Day#10 of POF22.

And what a day it was!

But first…the story of yesterday evening and the good food available at the Dundas Arms in Kintbury.

So excited were we at the arrival of my elder boy Craig and his family to join us for dinner, that we completely forgot to take photos of the food.
So we thought we’d do the next best thing…so here’s the menu!! 😊

The journey was originally planned to be around 22 miles, so the shortest day so far, but one that would allow other people to join us along the way. But we decided to start at Kintbury instead of Hungerford and that shortened the journey by a couple of miles.

Sun 31st Hungerford Stn to Hatchgate Burghfield
Start High St Junc Canal, Hungerford RG17 0DN ///paler.logs.inner
Milkhouse rd. 5.6miles
1st Break The Triangle, Hambridge Ln, Newbury RG14 5TU dewatering services ///paper.remain.fast 10.5 miles
Thatcham Railway Station 12.5 miles
Midgham Railway Station
Basingstoke Road 17.6miles
Leave Canal at Ufton Lock on Ufton lane ///laptops.stood.alas 19.2 miles
Follow Ufton lane onto Church lane 19.7 miles
Left and the Right onto Island Farm Road 20.5miles
Left onto Shortheath Lane 20.7 miles
Right onto Sulhamstead Rd 21.4 miles
Follow until Hatchgate Pub
Drink cold beer

So the day began with Sarah (none other than Ollie’s mum!) and Shona joining us from OYF along with a good friend of ours Lee. They had all travelled out to us from Wokingham and Reading.

Above is a nice photo taken later in the day at The Row Barge on the way back to Burghfield.

The walk was really nice today. It did get warmer as the day went on but honestly, we had nothing to complain about. The paths were all nice and steady, and most of all not overgrown.

It seemed that we got to Newbury in excellent time, even to the point where we thought we were going slightly too fast!

But Newbury it was and we passed through after a little less than 2 hours

And here we go again for another Dale & Big Al story.

We had agreed with Alan that we should have just one checkpoint at Thatcham railway station. We had set off from Kintbury accordingly and expected to meet Big Al somewhere around 11 miles later.
Imagine our surprise to see the van parked up in Tesco Car Park in Newbury, some 6 miles too soon, where Alan was filling his face and, to be fair, buying goodies for our CP break. 😊

We all moved on and enjoyed a lovely catch up with good friend Tim and his son Finlay just before we got to Thatcham. They had ridden out on their bikes from Burghfield to meet us.

And when we did stop at Thatcham, the OYF girls showed us very quickly how prepared they were! Out came the salmon salad and the copious amounts of pasta! No wonder their rucksacks were so big! 😊

And then as we set off and passed through Aldermaston Wharf, they were not slow in holding their hands up when an Orange Calippo was on offer! 😊

When we reached Ufton Lane it was great to meet up with our good friend Nigel who brought us some well needed water and with my sister and cousin, Toni and Sylvia, who were joining us for the last 4 mile walk in.

It was fabulous.

It seemed that the day was almost over for the type of spontaneous donation that we had received along the way when we were fortunate enough to meet the lovely Sarah & John and Eddie & Mary who very kindly donated to the cause.

And the best moment of the afternoon was the arrival of Big Al to join us on the walk in. He had dropped the campervan back to its base in Maidenhead and raced back to be able to be with us at the close of the adventure.

So, it was just a case of closing down the last few miles and entering the village. Our great friend Brian joined us at the top of Hose Hill and we enjoyed the last stretch in warm sunshine.

And finally we were there. Big Al and I had covered a total of 198.7 miles over 5 canals…Llangollen, Shropshire, Stafford & Worcester, Oxford and Kennet & Avon.

When we got to The Hatch in Burghfield village it was amazing that friends and family had assembled to welcome us home. It was a fantastic moment!

We were able to host a great race night at The Hatch Gate Inn where we must thank Buddy and his team for supporting such a successful night.
And on finally getting home and relaxing, it was so nice to realise that Mika, Debs and my dog, had decided that looking after my feet was her top priority! 😊

Our total as at the evening of August 1st, is just over £4,200 without Gift Aid. With Gift Aid this amount is over £4,600.
Alan and I can’t thank you enough for the way that you have supported our adventure these last 10 days. It has been an absolute pleasure to meet so many kind, generous and overall just really good people.

We hope that the blogs have been entertaining. We have certainly had so many laughs and a few challenges along the way that it was so important for us to share them with you. We are already planning what’s next.

2023…bring it on!!!

If you haven’t yet done so, please consider to donate whatever amount you can. We know that times are hard just now, but any amount counts.
To all of our supporters of The Ollie Young Foundation, please keep in touch and thanks for any support that you can offer the charity. Nothing is too small, everything is appreciated.

With that last note, this is Pensioner on Foot (POF22)…signing off!

www.pof22.co.uk

Dale & Alan.