Thames Path: Hampton Court to Strawberry Hill

I worked an extra day this week, as I had a deadline to meet setting up an online photography exhibition. I was using a site which makes it possible to put together a 3D virtual exhibition. It is quite straightforward, but there were a lot of photos and text to put in so it was time-consuming. 

On Thursday M was working and TG at school, so I went out for the day on my own. At the beginning of 2020 I had decided that I would try to walk the Thames Path during the year. Covid of course put a stop to that. Now virus levels are low and I have had my first vaccine dose it feels safe enough to go out and about more, so I decided to make a start with the first leg from Hampton Court to Strawberry Hill. 

I took the train to Hampton Court station, crossed the river and started the walk outside Hampton Court Palace. There was a good view of the palace from the path. The gardens behind the palace looked lovely, but there was a double fence so I couldn't get a photo. I did manage to get one of this rather impressively decorative section of the inner fence. 

The first section of the path is Barge Walk, which runs from Hampton Court to Kingston and is owned and managed by the Hampton Court estate. The weather was a bit disappointing. The forecast was for cool weather but some sun; in practice it was cool but without sun. At least it was dry! I was surprised to see this paddle steamer running - I doubt it will be getting many passengers yet, but it was another sign of returning normality. 

At Kingston the path switches to the opposite of the Thames. There were quite a few smaller boats on the river here, including a number of rowers training. I walked past Kingston Rowing Club and enjoyed the pattern of the stacked boats.  

A little further on I was struck by the contrast between the houseboats on the river and the block of flats behind. I also passed some extremely expensive looking houses, with lawns running down to the river and boats moored at the bottom of their gardens. 

At Teddington Lock the path crossed the river again via a foot bridge. This is the point at which the non-tidal and tidal sections of the Thames meet. The view below is of the weir just above the lock, which I presume is the point beyond which the tide does not reach. 

The walk was 6 miles in total, with the last mile or so after Teddington moving away from the Thames and onto the streets - I think this may be the only part where there is no riverside path. I had planned the timing quite carefully. I have a discount railcard which allows me to travel more cheaply, but only on trains which leave our home station after 10. That meant I could not get to Hampton Court before 12.15. I didn't want to have to travel in the rush hour - though so few people are now commuting that I don't think the trains are particularly busy at any time - so I aimed to catch a train from Strawberry Hill station at 3.08. I reckoned that three hours should give me plenty of time, even though I am not a very fast walker and needed to take a break to eat my packed lunch. I made it with 15 minutes to spare, time to buy a coffee from a cafe next to the station. A journey planner app told me that the fastest way home was to take four different trains. Rather to my surprise everything ran to time and the three changes went smoothly, apart from the last one where I waited on the wrong platform and only just realised in time to catch my train. 

I had felt a bit nervous about going on public transport - the last time I caught the train was when I went to London to visit the National Gallery last summer, and moving out of the lockdown frame of mind is hard. The logical side of my brain that has studied the statistics had to talk firmly to the emotional side that hasn't yet worked out that it is safe to start doing things again! I am so glad that I did go, as I both very much enjoyed the walk and now feel more relaxed about going out again in the future. I'm not sure when I will do the next leg, but hope it won't be too long. Hopefully M will be able to come with me next time, but between his weekend work commitments and someone needing to be around to collect TG from school during the week it is a bit tricky at the moment to find a time we can both do.