I walked CriSwi on 12 April 2022. It was a very wet start to the day, but rain stopped within the first hour of walking. I walked with my medium sized pointer cross dog Ela. The start of the route was easy to find in Cricklade and the first 1.4km were very pleasant along a disused railway. The route also forms part of the 45 National Cycle Route. Unfortunately, the second half of this section has been fenced off as new tracks are being laid to extend the Swindon and Cricklade railway (a permissive path alongside is promised). I had to walk down a tarmac farm access only road (unsure if private) to regain the road. The road is very quiet so pleasant enough walking. At the junction with the B4553, I saw that there were concrete bollards at the entrance to the road I was on, hence the quiet walking. The B4553 is quite busy and fast, but it was only around 250m to the footpath off to the right. This next section does not head directly to Swindon but heads southwest across fields and some wooded areas. It’s quite soft underfoot here and there are many stiles to cross, some small bridges too. My dog managed to get through all the stiles, but a bigger dog might not. There was no livestock in any field despite signs advising me of cows, calves, and a bull just by Pry Farm. This might be different at another time of year. Crossing the B4553 again, there was a small field to cross diagonally before I found myself in woodland. This was not shown on my OS map app (but I did see it on Bing Maps OS version on my desktop at home). Very pleasant to walk through. There seemed to be many different paths so a more direct route could possibly be found. I ended up on a tarmac path for the last bit through the Country Park before we went under the Cricklade and Swindon railway bridge and found ourselves briefly in Swindon suburbia. The route then followed another section of disused railway for quite a long stretch and again was also the 45 National Cycle Route. I passed to the south of Swindon Water Treatment Works and our path was alongside a busy road. We passed underneath another railway bridge before walking through a residential area and then onto a wider path that seemed to pass through an industrial area. There were several underpasses, all well-lit, but the area did feel run down. We emerged to the west of the mainline station at Swindon and headed through the shopping area to find the Library and Information Centre. There are several places to eat and drink on the walk into the centre. The library is open 1000-1730 Monday to Friday and 1000-1400 on a Saturday. The bus station is between the library and the railway station. I didn’t see what facilities were available in Cricklade but the first shop I came to on the route was Lidl near the wastewater treatment plant (after approx. 12km). The distance shown is about right; I walked it in just under 3 hours so a bit faster than 5km / hr.
There are no direct footpaths from Cricklade to Swindon and this route is fairly direct. It may be worth checking if there is a permissive path along the Cricklade and Swindon railway sections that have already been laid. If yes, then the route could avoid the farmland to the west of the B4553 and be shorter as a result.

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