The Thames Path Part VI:Staines-Upon-Thames to Windsor (Castles In The Air)

169 (ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY NINE) days had passed since our last Thames Path walk (Walton-on-Thames to Staines-upon-Thames took place on Good Friday back in April) and if arranging another date, what with train strikes and extreme weather conditions, had been something of a pain then I'm happy to report that yesterday's walk (stage six on our slow moving Thames Path odyssey) was an absolute pleasure. I hope we don't take anywhere near as long getting round to the seventh section.

 

The day had started pretty early for me and I was on the 63 bus to Waterloo not long after 8am. Killed a bit of time there before jumping on the 1003 train to Staines where, at Clapham Junction, I was joined by Pam. After I briefly took us in the wrong direction from the train station, Pam corrected us and we took the short walk into the town centre. Pam's phone took us through a car park and into the middle of the Two Rivers shopping centre  (one street lined with umbrellas - solidarity with Hong Kong?) where, eventually, we found the Eggham on Toast Cafe and, as predicted, Shep and Adam were sat there with empty plates in front of them.

They'd arrived, with Laura - who was out and about handing out Buddhist leaflets, at 1020am and would end up spending more than two hours (!) in the cafe. It was a nice cafe but it wasn't the easiest to find so several people turned up late and then, because they cooked each brunch individually, it took a while for each to come. They were tasty though. I had a veggie breakfast (beans, bread, fried egg, one good veggie sausage, a couple of hash browns, two mushrooms, and some tomatoes).

As I was having to answer calls and send messages to ensure people found the place it was cold by the time I finished it and the mushrooms and tomatoes were left on the plate but the nice cup of tea was certainly drained. As we ordered, ate, and chatted the others arrived:- Bee, Dan (my nephew making his debut on a Thames Path/TADS/LbF walk - hopefully he'll come again soon), Simon, Sharon, and Jason.

It was good to have the band back together but two people were missing. Mo was on a work trip to Canada (we'd gone ahead with her full blessing and she intends to catch up and rejoin us soon) and Dave Fog had mistakenly gone to the Egham branch of Eggham On Toast instead. We'd catch up with him en route - when we finally got going.

Still in the shopping centre we paused, briefly, to take in a statue that celebrates Frederick Walton, the man who invented Linoleum (in 1864) and opened a factory in Staines to produce it. He died in 1928 and thus will remain forever ignorant of his contribution to hip-hop and b-boy culture.

As we made our way down to the banks of the Thames we crossed the two rivers (the Wraysbury and the Colne) which give the shopping centre its name and we saw a guy with a t-shirt boasting of how proud he was to have been born in Staines in 1968 (the same year as at least three of our gang). We crossed Staines Bridge and soon we were back on the Thames Path. It felt good to be back.

 

It was, as with the rest of the day, a very pleasant and picturesque stretch. The autumn sun glistened on the river's surface, abundant greenery and boats silently gliding downstream and up made photography almost compulsory but I was aware of upping the pace as we'd lost time in the cafe. Most of us completely missed the replica London Stone and the white iron 'coal post' that was once used to warn merchants that, under an act of 1831, they were now entering London and, therefore, due to pay a levy on their coal.

We passed underneath the M25 and came out by the Runnymede-on-Thames Hotel where Dave Fog was waiting to join us. We were in Magna Carta country and the first sign of it was a statue, possibly a very rare one, of Elizabeth II which was part of a set piece which listed the reigns of all British monarchs since 1066 and other relevant moments in British history and their contribution to the advance of democracy and freedom. Thinking about it now it seems odd that the liberty of the British people should be linked to the monarchy when, if anything, the existence of a monarchy at all is the antithesis of the concept of liberty.

 

Still, it was interesting. Not that Laura and Dan seemed to think so as, deep in conversation, they walked straight past it and sped off far ahead of the rest of us. That means they also missed the American Bar Society's Magna Carta Memorial and the sculptural set piece known as The Jurors (a series of twelve chairs placed in a field and as if round a table) to celebrate eight hundred years since Magna Carta.

Created by the artist Hew Locke, I'd like to have crossed the (fairly) busy A308 and gone and had a closer look but with time not on our side, and Dan and Laura getting ever further ahead, we decided against it. One for another day, perhaps!

At this point, and as planned, it was time for Simon to say goodbye (he had stuff on) so we posed for a few photos (Simon, Sharon, Pam, Dave Fog, and I had all worked together for several years - and Jason had been in the same company too) which Shep managed to obscure with his finger (or thumb) as he took them. Dan and Laura, I thought, were now probably a good mile ahead.

We rang them. They weren't. They were only a couple of hundred of metres ahead and just before we entered Old Windsor (home of Saxon kings) we caught up with them. Several of us remarked on how nice it would be to take a ride on the Lucy Fisher paddle steamer though the price (£9.50 for forty-five minutes) was not so nice.

The houses facing out to the river were looking resplendent (and expensive) on a Goldilocks day for walking and we continued along a gentle stretch of river for another mile or so until we reached the Albert Bridge and crossed over to the other side. A few paths which cut through some fields and a brief roadside walk took us to Datchet, a place I'd never visited before and had barely ever given a second thought.

It looks a pretty, and well-to-do, kind of town. One house looked like something from a gothic horror and another, right next to it, cream mansion looked fairly imposing in its own way. The village green was flanked by Tudor (or maybe mock-Tudor) terraces and shop frontages and it almost felt as if a game of cricket should be taking place. Our main attention, however, predictably, was, of course, the pub.

The Royal Stag served a lager called Royal Stag so it seemed only right I take one. The ten of us took a table in the beer garden (in truth a car park - but a very nice one) and we'd made up enough time to make a good ol' two pint mistake (well, some of us). It was observed that Bee and Sharon both, quite unusually, had a pint though Bee's was a lager top and Sharon's a lager shandy.

We sat chatting about music, football, awful bosses from the past, and all manner of other nonsense (including Adam's favourite subject of the day - tissues - be they Kleenex or Handy Andies) for a good ninety minutes as British Airways planes regularly zoomed over the spire of St Mary the Virgin Church. Shep trying, and mostly failing, to get a good photo of them (though Pam got one). Like a man who'd never seen an aeroplane before.

5pm, as planned, it was time to hit the road again and I'd estimated (for once correctly - or within about five minutes) that it would take us another hour to reach Windsor/Eton where we'd be meeting Cath (the artist formerly known as Catherine) and Eamon in Eton's George pub.

We cut through a forest and back to the riverside, the sun now lower in the sky and giving the whole scene a rather gorgeous golden hour kind of feel. We crossed the river again on Victoria Bridge (obviously a companion to Albert Bridge) and into Home Park with our first views of Windsor Castle and the none more English sound of a a game of cricket playing out.

This was an easy stretch (though we still managed to get quite spread out) and that was just as well as I felt either my feet were expanding or my boots were shrinking). The riverside path took us, as with so many walks, though a yard full of industrial equipment and when we came out of a brief track into Windsor proper the river and the sky both looked absolutely glorious.

We crossed Windsor Bridge into Eton and into the George. There's a lot to see in both Windsor and Eton (it's not all about the castle) and another time I'd like to do the circular walk around both towns as suggested in our trusty Thames Path tome (it takes in stories about Henry VI, David Cameron (boo), William the Conqueror, Elizabeth II, Sir Christopher Wren, Shakespeare, John the Baptist (he knows the score), George V, and Queen Victoria) but nobody was up for an extra five miles so instead, with another local beer on the go - Capital, we took to the pub's beer garden where we met with Cath and Eamon.

As with the Royal Stag, it would have been easy to stay there shooting the breeze for another couple of hours but I'd booked the Viceroy for Indian food so we headed off, through Windsor and past its ginormous castle - it really amazes me how anything so large gets built and it horrifies me that most of it sits empty as Britain's streets are lined with homeless people - for food. Eamon, handily, guiding us down Peascod Street and on to St Leonards Road to the curry house.

 

The Viceroy was bustling, and huge, and we arrived in dribs and drabs but we all arrived - except Eamon who was never planning on joining us for curry and Shep and Laura who decided to head home at this point. A pity because I think they'd have enjoyed the food and drink at the Viceroy.

A couple of poppadums each and it was on to the mains. I had a veggie dansak and paratha and Dan kindly shared some of his boiled rice with me. Every third or fourth mouthful was pretty spicy but I did okay as I had a brace of Cobras to wash it down with. As far as I could gather, most of the others were happy with their food (as well as the post-prandial Murray Mints and After Eights) and then, as so often on these walks, it was time to rush back to the station.

Me, Dan, Pam, Sharon and Jason made Windsor & Eton Riverside station in good time and Dan hopped off at Staines to drive home while the others changed at Clapham Junction. I continued on to Waterloo and then, resisting a friend's request to join him for a nightcap in an undisclosed location, I took the 63 bus home, brushed my teeth, put my phone on charge, and went straight to bed. I'd notched up a reasonably decent 30,407 steps during the day but more importantly I'd seen some beautiful buildings and countryside. More importantly still I'd shared the day with twelve absolutely lovely people.

Thanks to Pam, Dan, Sharon, Jason, Bee, Dave Fog, Simon, Shep, Laura, Adam, Eamon, and Cath for a brilliant day out and thanks to Bee, Pam, and Sharon for some of the snaps and maps I've included in this blog. Look forward to doing it all again in much less than 169 days!