Paddington Station was in a fair amount of disarray as the relatively newly refurbished station roof was leaking in a million places, so much so that half the ticket machines were blocked off because of standing water around them. The next fastest train to Reading was awaiting a driver and the posted Oxford train was running just 5 cars, so was full and standing. Welcome to GWR-world! At Goring & Streatley, just 2 emerged from the train on what was forecast to be pretty wet to noon, then gradually improving and finishing in sunshine. That's not quite what happened though. We indeed started in rain but that stopped after half an hour, although after a break some drizzle commenced and that, in a stop-start way, stayed with us for quite a while. The route starts with the ascent out of Streatley familiar from one of the Goring Circ walks, soon after reverse-walks a stretch of the Cholsey to Goring walk but then it's all new. The Wittenham Clumps (Didcot Circ) and what's left of Didcot Powerstation dominated the view from the ridge, once we had left the land of horse gallops and mildly rolling downs behind. The Lambourne Downs (I think) were visible in teh distance on the left. The rain stopped some time before we reached a bench with views (the only one passed all day, just east of Cuckhamsley Hill): time for lunch. Just as we got up, a large dark cloud passed and then emptied ferocious amounts of rain, convincing us to wait out the cloud under some trees. The landscape was getting a bit samey by now, all cereal fields and the odd oddly shaped plantation, but tighter valleys soon appeared and that pleased the eye. No walkers other than dog walkers, but several runners and plenty of cyclists were about though. Where the route turns off the Ridgeway, not many views can indeed be had from the very large Letcombe Castle hillfort site due to trees blocking most of the valley, and neither from the descent along a tree-lined lane. There is a more westerly route laid out in a pub leaflet, which sounds potentially more rewarding (partly along permissive paths). Raingear had been stored away by now (but later had a 10 minute cameo just before Wantage) and the rather brilliant Greyhound Inn in Letcombe Regis gave us an excuse for a well-deserved drink (at around quarter to 5 this) but the rest of the route to Wantage was a touch disappointing, as the (on the map) promising looking brook and meadows to the left were in fact hidden from view by a high fence. Dinner in Wantage rounded off a good day in very good company, followed by the X35 bus to Didcot Station, travelling underneath the ridge we had walked along. The Ridgeway itself was quite easy to walk along, with far more grassy stretches than one feared and not very rutted at all. And apart from a few road crossings (one via an underpass), it was absolutely quiet and fairly removed from civilisation. on and off rain some heavy