DAY NINE: Kew Bridge to the Globe Theater

I couldn't wait to get going on the last day, even though this meant that I would finish earlier. It was 7am when I left Kew Bridge; the early morning sun took the chill off the night.


There was no one around, but the river was already quite busy with rowers. I suppose they have to be up early to take advantage of the river before it becomes a busy navigation through the city. There were also a couple of folks with metal detectors looking very pleased with whatever they had found under the mud that morning.



The entire 16 mile stretch to the finish was along the Thames Path, another long distance path. I didn't have a map for this section -- a mistake in hindsight, because the path actually weaved in and out of tiny London streets where access was denied on the river frontage. It took a considerable amount of time to work out how to get around obstacles, and I had to cross the river more than once to keep heading east.


I was also surprised by how many rural many stretches of the Thames Path there were, despite being in London. It's amazing what you find when you get out of the car!


I stopped for breakfast at Fulham Football Club. Their stadium is on the banks of the river. Luckily, there wasn't a match on today, otherwise it would have been a challenge dodging the crowds.


Many of the houses along the river have permanent flood defenses. I understand that flooding occurs quite frequently along this stretch, so the houses have waterproof gates and sealed glass frontages to keep the river water out. I guess it's only going to get worse, and we could all probably learn a thing or two from how these savvy home owners have kept the elements at bay. Of course, the best home in a flood -- a house boat!


There were also some good wall scribbles.



The vast majority of the banks are developed into fancy housing, but some industrial landmarks still remain, like the Battersea Power Station. This is also to be redeveloped soon.


If the first 14 miles of this section was notable because of how quiet the parks and path was, the last three miles was exceptional because of how busy it was. I walked past the London Eye, South Bank center, houses of parliament and the Museum of Modern Art. This entire area is awash with tourists. Again, it was strange -- but nice -- to be in such a crowded environment again.




As I approached the finish, I got a great surprise; dressed in "well done" T-shirts, I got a big pat on the back from Kate, B and my extended family. It was really great!


On the way home, I really couldn't believe that the months of training, planning and the days of walking had come to an end so quickly. It had been an incredible adventure. I had enjoyed every single minute of it. We had raised a bag of cash for a worthwhile charity in the process. It felt great.


Now, about the next walk......

TOTAL MILES WALKED: 158.69
TOTAL KM WALKED: 255.39
TOTAL STEPS: 290,431
TOTAL CALORIES: 13,746
TOTAL HOURS WALKED: 48.75hrs

DAY EIGHT: Iver to Kew Bridge

The start of this walk was horrible, the worst mile of the whole walk. Leaving Iver, it followed a series of small, heavily littered streets down to a scrap yard. A smelly little lane terminated at the base of a footbridge that crossed the iconic M25 motorway. I felt particularly sad because Kate had chosen to complete this stage of the walk with me -- what she saw in that first half hour was quite the opposite of the incredible beauty I had experienced for the previous 110 miles.



Over the noisy motorway, we entered into "Greater London". We passed a big sewage works, old empty factories and picked our way down to the Grand Union Canal. We would follow this road made of water (as they called it in the 1800's) right down to the Thames.



The canal was wider than the Oxford Union canal. I expect this was because of the heavy shipping that once traversed it. We also got an unexpected treat in terms of wildlife along the canal. We saw huge fish (can anyone tell me what it is?), heron's catching fish and, to our complete amazement, a terapin! I suppose someone decided that it had grown too big for their tank at home and set him free -- he was certainly doing well in relatively clean water of the canal.


If the wildlife was a pleasant surprise, so was the fruit! We picked a couple of pounds of delicious blackberries along the side of canal. Kate had turned my walk into a rather civilized affair, despite the industrial surroundings. There was more time to spend doing other things because I spent less time with my head in a map -- signs were-a-plenty now.


One of the more unusual sights along the way was the intersection of nearly all modes of ground transport in one place. As you can (almost) see here, you can see a railway on the ground level, an aqueduct for the canal and a road bridge spans the whole thing!


A lot of people live on boats along the canals network. Some of the barges are very pretty indeed. And some folks have obviously decided to live a different kind of life -- wonder if that tent is warm in the winter!


After a delicious packed lunch sitting on the canal lock gates, we headed further south east. It got a little confusing around the "Thames Link" canal/river, but we finally reached the Thames around mid-afternoon. The old docks had been turned into very plush residential apartments in this area and I got my first view of the city skyline.



After a couple of pints of shandy in a great pub on the river bank near Kew Bridge, I said goodbye to Kate at Kew railway station. I caught the tube to Chelsea, where my gracious friend Tom had arranged for me to stay the night. It was a very odd sensation being among so many people again, especially in such a busy, loud, crowded city like London. Quite the culture shock!


I couldn't quite believe that I had walked to London. The rest of the walk would be along the Thames to the Globe Theater.

DAY SEVEN: Marlow to Iver

Day seven broke in glorious sunshine, again! This had been the seventh day in a row that the sun had shone. What luck!


I was joined for this section of the walk by Fred, who have previously enjoyed a taste of long distance walking by briefly joining his friend who walked the monumental 1,300 mile journey from Lands End to John O'Groats, the length of Britain. Today's walk would be a little shorter at 22 miles, but still quite a haul in one day.



We followed the Thames path for nearly three miles out of Marlow, passing gorgeous houses on the banks of the river and even a little beach! We joined the start (or finish) of the Beeches Way at Hedsor, which took us through a series of old woods, over two commons, culminating in Burnham Beeches Nature Reserve. There were a lot of horses along this section, including two that came to a mutually beneficial agreement regarding back scratching!


This nature reserve is all the more remarkable because it runs for many miles across the north west of the outer fringes of London. Looking at the map, it acts as a green belt between the city and the country. It's a remarkable achievement of local planning that this unspoilt area has fought off the many attempts to develop it -- long may it last.


One section of Langley Park contained Yew trees that are said to be 800 years old!



After a quick coffee in Farnham Common, we continued through Brockhurst wood, an ancient woodland, before entering Stoke Common, which is a vast expanse of newly planted trees. We then entered Black Park Country Park, still following the Burnham Beeches path, via a fancy private gated community of homes. During this section, we came close to, but could not see, Pinewood Studios, an important part of British cinema history.


After more than six hours of seeing hardly anyone along the route, we hit the lake in the park at the height of playtime. We enjoyed a tasty ice lolly alongside thousands of screaming kids enjoying their summer holidays, before setting off to complete the final leg of the walk through rather scrubby little villages into the town of Iver. It took a while to locate the pub that didn't threaten to remove us of all out worldly belongings, but when we did, we both enjoyed a well deserved cold pint to rehydrate after a long day of walking in the sun.


I was now on the very edge of London with only 36 miles to go in the last two days. The number of paths and cycle routes were increasing, as evidenced by this sign post. I would be saying goodbye to the countryside for good and entering a very different, heavily developed and industrialized landscape for the finish.

Miles walked: 22.64
Calories: 1841
Steps: 40,510
Walked for 6.26hrs
Weather: Beautiful

DAY SIX: Cookley Green to Marlow

Mrs Rutter put on a delightful breakfast in the B&B and, after a plate of poached eggs and many cups of coffee, I was off again at 9am. I had been told to keep an eye out for the distinctive Red Kite bird, which was introduced to the area. I did see them later on, but I saw mostly horses along the route.



This section of the walked proved to be quite hilly; although small, the approaches were very, very steep and the morning was filled with these little blighters. The first five miles of the walk were characterized by woodland, hill climbs and small open sections of open fields. I had noticed that the scale of open land was starting to decline - already everything felt more "developed" as I drew nearer to the home counties and London.



The number of stately homes were also increasing.


Through Gussett's Wood, then Great Wood, I eventually arrived in the picturesque village of Hambledon. Mrs Rutter told me that many films had and were being made in this village because of its unspoilt houses and streets. It was remarkably pretty and I enjoyed a freshly made sandwich overlooking the village church.



It took me some time to negotiate a field with a rather large bull in it. Thankfully, the large sign alerted me to him in time and I didn't get between him and his ladies.




I left the village and again climbed quite steeply into more woodland, which kept me in the shade of the very hot sun for another couple of hours. It was hard to navigate in the woods because the paths were numerous and I had to take a guess for most of it, but I eventually made it to Marlow for a very early finish at 3:30pm.


I checked into my B&B early, dumped my kit and spent a pleasant afternoon wandering around the town, resupplying on various painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs and sent a few thank you cards. Marlow is on the Thames, so it is a very busy tourist town. I watched a little of the cricket match being played while I eat supper; very English.


After six days of relentless sunshine, I was now very brown and looking a little wild don la beard. I started to feel a pang of disbelief that I had walked to the edge of London in six days and I only had another three days left. The time was going so quickly, but I was enjoying every single minute of the walk -- I didn't want it to end so soon. This was the first time I wondered if I could blag another week off work so that I could turn around at the finish and walk back home again!

Miles walked 15.64
hours walked 4hrs 48mins
Calories 1272
Steps 27988
Weather: Glorious

DAY FIVE: Sandford on Thames to Cookley Green

Claire filled me up with fresh fruit, cereal and hot buttered toast and we drove back to where she had picked me up the night before in Sandford on Thames. After two days with great company, I was back on my own for the next two days. Walking alone is a great experience -- it means that you have to rely on your own judgment, you have "space" to think and, certainly in my job, it means that I can keep my mouth shut for a whole period of time and let my other senses have room to stretch!



It wasn't the most glorious of starts; I crept quietly through a travellers site and then walked beneath huge power cables for the next mile or so. The power cables came from a nearby electricity generation facility that feeds most of Oxfordshire -- rather an ugly site.

But the views quickly improved as I entered Toot Baldon and, subsequently, arrived in Court Leyes.




It was then a quick succession of small hamlets; Chiselhampton, Brookhampton and Manor Farm. This section required very careful navigation because recent harvesting had removed any trace of paths. I had to check the map and my pace every 3 minutes to ensure I didn't get lost in the huge expanse of farmland. I even had to bet my life on my navigation skills when I came across two red cheeked country gentleman out shooting for the day. I was told that I was on their land (quite welcome), but if they saw me wander off in the wrong direction, I'd get a butt full of buckshot. With that, they heartily laughed and waited for me to walk on..... I gulped, checked my bearings and I'm glad to say I got it right.


It was then on to Chalgrove, along a long bridleway to Brightwell Baldwin and then east along Turners Green Track to Britwell Salome.



At this stage, I looked down at my borrowed boots and laughed. Not only were these new acquisitions doing a fantastic job, they were actually more comfortable and suited to this type of walking than the broken Meindl's I had left behind with Claire. I had also left the other half of my gear with Claire because the weather forecast remained good, so no need for waterproof gear of the six maps I had gone through already!


After four miles along interconnecting bridleways, I reached "The Ridgeway", another long distance path. It runs 85 miles east to west. I followed it for a little while, then climbed 800+ feet into Woods Farm through delightful forest. It was then just a short two miles into Cookley Green and down to my B&B for the night, a farmhouse.



I received a wonderfully warm welcome from Mrs Rutter at Park Corner Farm. We drank a gallon of tea and studied the maps of my trail for an hour, before Mr Rutter kindly took me to the local pub for dinner. I eat like a king and, shortly thereafter, I was in a soft comfy bed overlooking farmland as the sun set on the distant horizon.

How great is this.

Miles walked 19.51
Calories 1586
Time walked 5.34 hrs
Steps 34911
Weather: another scorcher