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Waterloo to Westbury
I set off early in the morning and walked down to Westbury station to take the train to London Waterloo gleefully watching all the commuters scurrying off to work. What a pleasure to observe without being involved in the scurrying.
From Waterloo it is a short walk down to the banks of the Thames. There is a signed pathway from the Thames Flood Barrier at Woolwich all the way to the source of the river near Kemble in Gloucestershire. For those of you who may have headed north from Westbury, towards the Cotswolds, you may remember passing a freight airport with lots of aging Jumbo Jets parked on the tarmac, on the left hand side, Cotswolds Airport - Kemble is just there.
The South Bank of the Thames in Central London has been 'touristified' for more than a decade now, and is full of restaurants and bars and other amusements. Passing under Westminster Bridge there is no sign of the recent terrorist activity there. Past Battersea power station which is being developed finally into apartments and shops although they are retaining the famous towers and the facade - Pink Floyd fans celebrate.
Often, as
at Battersea dogs home (rescue dogs), the path veers away from the bank of the river around where they are building more riverside appartments.
I had booked a hotel for my first night, near Kew Bridge. It is the only time I booked in advance because I did not know how far I could walk each day. All the other days, I booked online from my phone when I ran out of steam! On a few occasions, I had to take a bus, train, taxi to/from the hotel but the next morning I simply took the bus/train/taxi back again to where I left off the previous day.
The Thames Path is busy at the weekend. Plenty of cyclists and dog walkers. There is lots to see just off the path such as Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, but I did not leave the path much at all, just to get a cup of tea or a meal and, unlike later on in the walk, there are plenty of opportunities to get refreshments close to the river. Later on, this was far from the case and it was often impossible to find anything near the canal. Once, I was faced
with a mile and a half walk to get a cup of tea which would have been 3 miles there and back so I made do with water and a banana.
At Teddington Lock which has a very large weir, I saw a strange, circular boat which was puttering along - weird. Someone said that it was that shape as they used it to get close to the weir barriers to carry out maintainence and it was designed to be just too big to be sucked through the weir barriers! Sounded logical.
Near Reading, I left the Thames and branched off onto the Kennet River which runs through the centre of Reading. Here in the middle of the city, along the banks, it is a leisure area with lots of restaurants, bars, cinemas etc - not really what I was looking for. As soon as you are out of the town however, the river bank is a whole lot quieter and suddenly quite peaceful, empty and rural.
There are disused, military pillboxes all along the Kennet River and later on the Kennet and Avon Canal. From World War 2 apparently, now overgrown mostly.
After Reading it
is generally very peaceful and quiet but at one point, the track along the river bank leaves the river and skirts around a couple of big lakes and part of this track runs alongside the M4 motorway. Just 20 or 30 metres away. It is horrible. Lots of noisy traffic thundering past. Eventually, the track rejoins the river bank and passes under the M4 which gradually fades away until extreme peace returns.
The canal passes right through the centre of the town of Newbury (which was handy for a hotel) and then continues on into what felt like, remote territory. Outside towns and villages, there was almost nobody on the river bank, just the occasional cyclist. Around the built up areas there were always plenty of dog walkers and walkers but once away from the housing, there was usually nobody around at all. In and around the towns and villages there were canal boats moored up. It is popular to live on these boats as it is a quiet, peaceful and relatively cheap way to live. There is also a thriving tourist industry renting out the boats for a few days/weeks to holidaymakers. In the countryside stretches of the
canal, the boats were not so commonly seen moored up.
There are a couple of pictures of the Ladies Bridge which is, apparently, the only bridge with decorations on it. It was built for a Lady Wroughton who owned the land through which it passed and she did not want an 'ordinary' bridge. Should be spelt Lady's Bridge I think.
Around here I was attacked by sheep. Well, I exaggerate a little but the sheep were blocking my path along the canal. As I walked along towards them, they just moved further away along the towpath. I tried standing still and looking away and 3 of them, did go past me but then they turned and bolted back to the flock. I could envisage them preceding me all the way home! After a mile or so, I approached a bridge and the lady farmer was there ready to divert them into a field. It seems it had happened before and she had spotted my problem and was prepared.
Many will have seen the flight of locks at Devizes - now in part, the pump is solar powered.
By prior arrangement, Pat, Stefanie, Emily and Madeleine were
to meet me at the Barge Inn.
My overall impression was that the walk was well worthwhile. It was something I had wanted to do for some time and I am glad I did it. I would recommend it to anyone, particularly from Reading (7/8 days) or Newbury (5/6 days) or Hungerford (3/4 days).
STATS
· DISTANCE: About 150 miles/240km (I had an app on my phone to measure the distance but it was too heavy on my battery so I had to turn it off as I was relying on the phone to book accommodation).
· DURATION: 10 days.
· BLISTERS: None! Amazing.
· WEATHER: Almost always dry, cool, about perfect - it would be grim in wet weather.
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Alan Morgan
An interesting read Dad thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos. So relieved you survived the attack of the killer sheep! And what a welcome committee! Awesome. Looking forward to the next adventure.