I walked to the local station and travelling a couple of stops before changing trains, travelling a couple more stops, changing again and trundling along on the Marlow Donkey to, well, Marlow.

For much of the train journey I was accompanied by people wearing wellies, and day-glo makeup, and flowers in their hair. Festival-goers either heading to the site for a day’s fun, or heading back home for a shower after last night’s fun. And a very drunk man (at 9am. Not judging, just sayin’…) whom I told to get his feet off the seat so that I could sit down. He was slouched on a half-empty (half-full? Was he an optimistic drunk?) bottle of whisky. Had I realised how drunk he was I might have just sat somewhere else. Not for the fear of violence but the fear of vomit. But happily he managed to keep it down until I left the train at Maidenhead.
Continue reading S2S Leg 9: Marlow to Sonning →

I can’t drive in my walking boots so my normal routine is to park at my end point, then finish getting dressed before catching a train to my start point. So today I parked at Marlow station, opened the boot of the car and took out two boots and… one sock. At the same moment Jackie was back at home wondering why I had left a sock in the middle of the living room floor. Fortunately there is an outdoor store near Windsor station so on arrival I was able to choose a new pair of socks from a surprisingly wide range. The sales assistant complimented me on my choice of sock. He complimented me on my choice of walking route. I’m not sure if he was after a tip or a date, but he got neither.
Continue reading S2S Leg 8: Windsor to Marlow →

At last! Back to the river! It felt good to get my boots back on, it felt good to get out in the fresh air on a lovely sunny day!

As the walk is now entering what is home territory for many of you, dear readers, I sent out an email to see if anyone wanted to join me. Some of you came up with inventive excuses for not coming out: having operations, night-shifts, living in Australia etc etc., but Gary couldn’t think of anything quickly enough so the two of us headed out from Staines railway station back to the point where I last left the route all that time ago.

Continue reading S2S LEG 7: Staines to Windsor →