Walk 49 - 21.0 miles - Total 678.5 miles - To Go 321.5 miles

Thames Path: Tower Bridge, Westminster, Hammersmith, Barnes, Mortlake, Kew, Richmond.








A flood of memories this morning. First the early wake up call at 6am reminding me of walks around the London Loop in darkest winter. Then the 7.14 train in to London with flashbacks of all those years commuting down to the office. Not so crowded this morning as Friday before a bank holiday at the end of 'summer'. So many drab outfits as people protect themselves against torrential rain and an unseasonably cold day.

We start at Tower Bridge and it is raining hard. The image of workers trekking over London Bridge with umbrellas aloft is quite a sight. Most minds connected with getting this day over and done with and hoping all the weathermen are wrong and a glorious bank holiday weekend follows.

We meet up with two of the stars of our team Tracy and Charlotte and Cafe Nero near their office. We have ideas to talk over and Rob starts laying out what we are thinking. Wonderfully Tracy and Charlotte take over and run the meeting the way it should be run and we sit back in awe and ask for further instructions. Fantastic. We are arranging a dinner at the House of Commons in November and Tracy and Charlotte simply and powerfully show us how to look at the idea in a completely new and far more compelling way.

We fill our time predicting football results this weekend. We agree to talk over hands of bridge we played last night online when we can see the hands but still dip in to analysis of partially remembered hands and half finished thoughts. We stop for a moment by Parliament where we have secured a finishing dinner for November 5th. It is always worth a stop to take it in.


We stop by the London Peace Pagoda dedicated to universal peace. Built in memory of Nichidatsu Fujii who died 100 years old in 1985 it is a wonderful spot and an admirable aspiration. There are so many wonderful attributes to Buddhist thought inaccessible to a Western material viewpoint. I stop for a moment and hope their quest for universal peace can have some space in the world.


After about 11 miles it is time for a break. We have reached Chelsea Harbour and drop in to the London Design Centre. A centre for designers to show off their talent and a funky place. I took photographs while Robert was having his meetings with the City.
After collecting my portfolio of shots I was told photography was not allowed and security would be over to deal with me soon if I continued. I had my photos so I was ok and Rob took some more as he had not been told off yet. Rob's photos are fantastic (so my friends tell me) so I don't expect to see any of my efforts displayed here.

As we leave Chelsea Harbour we pass Imperial Wharf where properties go for around £1700 per square foot. Think about that. A small room 10 feet by 10 feet will cost £170,000 and a one bedroom flat is going to come in around £900,000. There are properties at just under £3 million pounds here but they do have three bedrooms. Does look like an amazing complex though.

We walk on and the tide is now coming in. It is still interesting to watch the water flowing the 'wrong' way up the river. We stop at Hendersons Brasserie at Barnes. I ask the owner what his first name is and he tells me Henderson. I know he is not called Henderson Henderson so then we discover he is Henderson Cisc originally from Brazil. He is a talented artist with many impressive pictures around his restaurant and he has a lovely location a few yards from the Thames Path.


We walk on and stop by the Old Stables. Rob is delighted that he now recognises the cow in the front garden is not a real cow. A year ago he would have city boy style seen this as a real cow but after so much walking in the countryside he immediately recognises this as a substitute for a garden gnome.



Further on we have decisions to take as the river starts to cover the path. Makes you realise how finely balanced the level of the Thames is with the lives of those living by it. We get wet feet which is cooling at this stage of the walk.



Just after near to Isleworth we meet Sabine, Martina, Alexander and Milo out on a family bike ride from Hammersmith where they live to Richmond where we are heading. Alexander puts us to shame having completed Hadrian's Wall in four days to our six. That is impressive. Alexander is twelve and very articulate about what he did and what he is going to do.
A really enjoyable days walking. A new record of 21 miles exactly and although it looked ominous at the start we only got 20 minutes of rain all day.

Walk 48 - 20.5 miles - Total 657.5 miles - To Go 342.5 miles

Greensand Ridge Walk: Woburn, Eversholt, Millbrook, Ampthill, Maulden, Clophill and Haynes




Rob is back from Cyprus and 40 deg plus heat and 90 pct humidity and turns up this morning looking forward to rain and a cool English summers day. The weather men promised it but it was a beautiful English summers day full of blue sky, sunshine and warmth. We chose the Greensand Ridge expecting some hills to prepare us for Coast to Coast starting on September 6th. We had a lovely walk but Bedfordshire is as flat as flat can be. Instead our challenge was all wrapped up in completing our longest walk so far as we covered 20.5 miles.

We started in Woburn Park and what a stunning start that is. 9am Sunday morning and nobody around, surrounded by stunning views across parkland and soon stalking deer to see if Rob can get a great shot of a stag. We saw one but he was quickly off at the first whiff of Rob. As Rob is looking for new angles we are approached by Tim Dicks a ranger at Woburn. Previously a gamekeeper at Belvoir Castle for 22 years he has recently moved to Woburn and now is regularly required to herd humans instead of partridge and wildlife. He tells us we have gone astray and should not be where we are and leads us back to our path.

Not much further on we take a turn along a lane and step in to water over our boots and looking more like a stream. Fortunately we meet Brian and Chris from Ampthill out on their bikes who tell us we are going the wrong way and save us from wet feet and a big detour. Brian and Chris ride regularly as part of bikesbeerbanter.com which from the web site is clear about the fun they have together.

We notice we have now been walking for over a year as we see the farmers working their fields following a cycle we saw a year ago. We meet Mark Gordon down from Northfield Farm in Scotland carrying out work on the Duke of Bedfords land. Mark is studying Construction Management at Oxford Brookes and over the past two days has worked with a combine harvestor covering 200 acres yesterday starting at 9 in the morning and finishing at midnight before the rain comes. Today he is subsoiling 100 acres to avoid surface water gathering on the fields. Rob looks on enviously at the big machine Mark uses and imagines himself at the wheel shaping the land.
We meet a large group of cyclists from the rough stuff fellowship (rsf.org.uk) a group of people from all over the country that get together and bike. Rob also looks enviously on as the feet start to complain. The idea of a seat and some freewheeling looks rather appealing.

The blackberries are ready with a huge early harvest and lots of people are out collecting for apple and blackberry or even blackberry brandy. The bushes by Millbrook are covered with ripe blackberries ready for picking now.

We stop at The Prince of Wales for lime soda and a sit down. Rob gets in to conversation with Zbigmiew and Kamila about their Nikon and is talking the detail of lenses and the pros and cons of Nikon v Canon. I then hear Rob telling them there are no hills in Holland so it must be great to do the walking Zbigmiew and Kamila are doing in the UK. I am confused and so are they as they come from Poland and that is what I heard them tell Rob. They are very polite and listen with interest to Robs revelations about Holland!

We are now in autopilot and marching on. Only 5 miles to go seems such a simple challenge now. We pass through the churchyard of St Mary's at Maulden. It has an interesting mausoleum in the churchyard. There was also a sign offering tea and cakes so we go in for a second sit down. The church is a real delight inside and we meet Jenny Tim and John who brew a fantastic cup of tea and put on the most amazing offering of scones with clotted cream and jams and tea cakes. Jenny's daughter has just completed Coast to Coast and loved it and we are so looking forward to following in her footsteps and telling our tales from there.

On we trek to the end and our longest walk. A great day out with talk of football, writing, bridge, family, summer holidays and enjoying every moment. Can't wait for Coast to Coast to start.