Two Wonderful Walks.

Thursday 30th August, 2012 in Kintbury.
As it was a lovely day, we decided to walk to a local Farm Shop that had come highly recommended. The walk was delightful. The path took us across Freeman's Marsh, a nature reserve well known for its wildlife and plant life. M had a great time identifying all the wild flowers and photographing the ones she didn't know.

This one turned out to be a Monkey-Flower (Mimulus Guttatus).
The Marsh is criss-crossed by footpaths with kissing gates, stiles and even a couple of fords.

The little River Dun winds its sparkling way through the Marsh on its way to join the Kennett at Dun Mills. It was crystal clear. Such a contrast to the muddy waters of the canal.

The pretty star-shaped white flower thriving in the water is the curiously named "Grass of Parnassus." All the way from Greece? (Panassia Palustris).

We also saw a beautiful example of "Robin's Pincushion."

Cobbs, the Farm Shop was impressive; not only did it have a "pick-your-own" but it offered an excellent array of fresh produce, both home grown and from the surrounding area.

After the obligatory coffee and cakes in the cafeteria, we staggered back with two large (and heavy) carrier bags full  of goodies including rasberries, broad beans, runner beans, home-made bread and a lamb and mint pie.
We said an affectionate farewell to Hungerford soon after midday and, after filling with water, sailed on down to Kintbury. We found a mooring close to the lock there next to nb "Mr. Bojangles" with appropriate musical decoration.

Kintbury is the home base of a horse-drawn trip boat and shortly after we arrived the trip-boat came in, pulled by "Fred," who stood happily munching grass while the trip-boat went through the lock.

It was a lovely sunny day, so we decided to go for another walk towards a place called Avington Manor. Neither of us has been doing enough walking and the countryside is so beautiful that we wanted to see more of it. We set off along a good footpath past a large farm caled Baron's Court. As we approached Avington, we ran into two small problems. One was that it started to rain and the other was that the path seemed to peter out as we were surrounded by notices saying "Private - No Footpath." What to do? We certainly didn't want to turn round and retrace our steps, not least because much of the way we had been battling with stinging nettles growing across the path. However, there was an old church at Avington (mentioned in the guide books) and a notice saying "Visitors Welcome." So we walked through the churchyard up to the church. At this point there was a path  which did not have a "Private" notice on it - so we followed that.

It led us alongside the River Kennet on beautifully maintained grassy paths, across little bridges and a vast complex of water meadows.

It must have been a huge private estate as we didn't see a soul. Whoever owns it certainly looks after it beautifully and we definitely had the feeling that we should not really have been there. This feeling was confirmed when the only way out was over a stile that again said "Private - No Footpath." It was, however, a beautiful walk.
Supper was a dish of delicious scallops and crevettes, broad beans and French beans, all purchased this morning at the Farm Shop.
Today: 3 miles, 3 locks and 2.4 hours.
Trip: 242 miles, 248 locks and 205.6 hours (356.7 total).