Along the Thames

I've undertaken a new challenge. I'm going to walk the Thames Path, a system of trails on both the north and south banks of the river from Hampton Court in the west to the River Darent in the east. It's 79.5 miles altogether.

I got a healthy start yesterday at the Hampton Court Bridge where I joined the path. See that block spot in the river beneath the right-hand bridge support? That's a dog! Some guy on the bank would hurl tennis balls way out into the water and his dog would swim for them. Seems a bit risky to me but maybe there's not much of a current here. (Hasn't he heard of Shannon?)

There were lots of joggers and walkers in this area, some of them no doubt visiting Hampton Court Palace, in the background above. Dave and I went there almost ten years ago.

The path skirted the Hampton Court estate, eventually becoming narrow and gravelly, a section known as the Barge Walk. It ran beneath trees with the deer park and horse pastures on the left and the houses of Thames Ditton across the river on the right.

I crossed the river at the Kingston Bridge and entered Kingston-upon-Thames, where this colorful street art decorated an area near the river. I circled this block taking photos of murals on the barriers all the way around.

Eventually I made my way to Teddington Lock, a massive water control structure that includes multiple locks and a weir. There's a footbridge across an island above it, which provides a good view.

I had lunch -- toast with avocado, crab and a poached egg -- at a little cafe called Antipodea in Radnor Gardens, a riverside park near Twickenham. Then I kept walking.

The path passed Marble Hill House, built in the 1720s and the home of Henrietta Howard, a countess and mistress to King George II and by all accounts a witty and accomplished woman of her era.

The path eventually approached Richmond, where I saw this little boat bobbing in the currents. It doesn't look like a stress-killer. It looks like a stress-inducer!

The path then joined the Capital Ring, another popular walking route that I took a couple of years ago, so I'd been through this area before. I walked again through Isleworth and Syon Park, which I wrote about here, and then into Brentford, where the path was blocked by new construction and I had to scramble up an embankment and cross a street, bridge and parking lot before I could rejoin it. Thank goodness I'm relatively nimble.

I passed this pub, with lots of interesting signage including a large version of the famous Guinness toucan.

And I found this derelict boat in the Thames near Watermans Park, with an interesting and rather Soviet-looking wolf on its bow. (Or is that the stern?) I thought that was Kew Gardens across the river, but looking at a map now I realize it's an island called Brentford Ait. (Islands in the Thames are called "aits," or "eyots," a word apparently deriving from Old English.) Kew Gardens is on the other side of the island.

By this time I'd walked 12.5 miles and I was ready to call it a day. I thought I'd catch the train at Kew Bridge, but apparently trains weren't running from that station. I wound up having to catch a bus to a nearby tube stop and taking a couple of tube lines via Westminster in order to get home. Transport on a Sunday can sometimes be dicey!

Anyway, it's good to have a new walking project.