Extra Walk 83ab – Crowthorne to Blackwater, via Eversley Cross Length: 15 km (9.3 miles), with shorter option (see below). Toughness: 1/10
10:30 Portsmouth Harbour train from
Waterloo, changing at
Guildford (arr 11:03, dep 11:09) for the Reading train, arriving
Crowthorne at
11:38. From Clapham Jct you could take the 10:27 Exeter train and change at Woking (arr 10:45, dep 10:55) as well as Guildford. Buy a
return to Crowthorne.
Alternatively, if you'd like more time for the critical connection at Guildford, take the 10:15 Haslemere train from Waterloo (Clapham Jct 10:22), arriving there at 10:50. Trains back from
Blackwater towards Redhill (changing at Guildford for Waterloo) are at 25 & 51 minutes past the hour.
Shorter Option: The walk route goes past
Sandhurst station after 11¾ km (7.3 miles), where there are hourly trains towards Redhill at 22 minutes past. [You could also take a train in the other direction at 35 minutes past and change at Wokingham for Waterloo, but this takes longer.]
I wouldn't advise travelling back via Reading and changing there for Paddington as this is only valid with a more expensive "Any Permitted Route" ticket (£14.25 vs. £10.45 with a Network Card). The short version of this walk has only had a couple of winter postings, each of which suffered from a flooded footpath just before the lunch stop. I thought I'd give it an outing in (hopefully) drier conditions, especially now that the relatively new optional extension to Blackwater makes it more suitable for longer days. It covers similar ground to the main version – pine woods, heathland, lakes, pastures and a long stretch alongside the River Blackwater – although to confuse GPS
aficionados some of it is in the opposite direction.
There's a choice of two nice lunch pubs just off the large village green at Eversley Cross, the
Frog and Wicket and
The Chequers. If you finish at Sandhurst the
Village Inn is reportedly better for tea or coffee, but a Halloween Beer Festival at the
Rose & Crown will doubtless appeal to some. There are no particularly inviting places near Blackwater station, so if you're doing this extension the suggested tea place is
Pistachios in the Park café at the entrance to Sandhurst's Memorial Park; allow 35-40 minutes for the final 2½ km.
You'll need to print the directions from the
Extra Walk 83 page. You can reduce the amount of printing by clicking "Short" on the Walk Options line, which hides the directions and map routes which are only needed for the Main Walk.
PDF version: As an alternative, a PDF version of the Short Walk variations is on this
Walk 83 (short) page. I'd be interested to hear how well this displays on various mobile devices. T=swc.83.ab
In fact, the morning was not that bad. Rain greeted us as we disembarked at Crowthorne, but it was light and intermittent until lunch. The scenery was a very pleasant mix of heath and woods, dry underfoot on firm paths. On a nicer day this would have been a perfect winter walk.
The Queen’s Oak pub is described in the walk notes as “walker friendly”. They were certainly perfectly welcoming, but I suspect this establishment has undergone a change of management since the last walk update, as it is now a table service place with a fairly posh menu. They had one unreserved table and three of us had a perfectly pleasant meal there.
After lunch, alas, the rain set in. We did the slightly longer afternoon route and were soon in hunker down mode keep the body core warm, maintain essential functions and so forth. The best that can be said about such weather is that it tests your kit (Sealskin socks and waterproof trousers Pass; gloves and twenty year old waterproof jacket Fail). The section along the River Blackwater seemed very pleasant on the occasions when I raised my eyes from the ground, but they were very rare occasions. For the record, this section was not the least bit waterlogged, despite warnings in the walk document a good gravel path throughout and the river level a metre and a half below us.
We even got to Sandhurst with clean boots, and cleaner waterproof trousers than we had set off with. Our martial spirits were somewhat impaired, though. Even though it was only 3pm and our ranks included two stalwart long walkers, plans to carry on to Blackwater were ditched. Instead we went to the pub for tea or wine, and to start the long process of drying out before variously getting the 3.30 and 4.30 trains home.