Thames Path - Windsor to Marlow

Today was Day 3 of our 4-day walk along part of the Thames Path. We started from our hotel in Windsor which was only a short walk from the river bridge we had walked to yesterday. From here it was along the path all the way to Marlow, and then a total of 4 trains (!) to get back to Windsor.

This is what Joyce enticed us with to do the walk.

"You can expect a varied walk. Some is urban and some is very rural. Sometimes we are pushed away from the river bank and climb a steeper bank for a view . There is history, railway lines, planes and Red Kites overhead, meadows, wide paths, bridges, Islands, a ferry, a castle, wildlife and much more. It’s a tow path but not like a canal tow path. The river is wide and the locks and weirs are fascinating works of engineering.

I am really looking forward to a change of scenery. Walk as much or as little as you like but do enjoy yourselves."

This was our route today. The longest of our 4 days.

Here are just a few of my photos.

Walking to the bridge at the start, which we crossed to get to the Eton side.

Don't forget to look back every now and then when walking... here we had a great view of the castle (and a lot of swans) looking back the way we had come.

We stopped to admire these murals underneath the Queen Elizabeth II A332 bridge. They were done by Cosmo Sarson.

Striding out.

By Boveney Court we encountered the lonely Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene. Kathy read to us from her guide book that it was looked after by "The Friends of Friendless Churches". I sneaked inside for a quick look. As the friends site says, "The church is small and uncomplicated. It’s built of flint and clunch with a two-storey oak timber tower (probably built with oaks brought by barges from Windsor Forest) that’s a bit of a wibbly, wobbly wonder. It has four massive timber legs – which were felled in the late 15th century – and criss-cross of braces.". They saved it from demolition in the 1980s.

We saw many grand residences by the river.

The is the Oakley Court Hotel.

We passed under the M4 motorway. No great artwork here, but the supporting struts made a pleasingly geometric pattern.

Time for a drink stop at Bray Lock.

We saw more grand riverfront houses passing Bray and approaching Maidenhead.

Under the railway bridge, designed by Brunel in 1838, we stopped under the sounding arch to sing Happy Birthday to Kim who, sadly, couldn't be with us this week.

We crossed the road bridge and had our lunch  in the Bridge Gardens.

For our toilet stop we visited Ray Mill Island by the famous Boulter's Lock.

Here is one of the waterfowl highlights of the day - a mandarin duck.

At Cookham we stopped for tea at the Teapot Tea Shop. It had a great selection of teapots.

Here I am with mine.

We didn't stop to visit Cookham Church.

We crossed back to the other side of the river here.

Nearing Marlow now...

Miranda spotted this genteel protest.

I took a little detour to visit Marlow Lock.

At the Marlow Donkey we stopped for a drink...

..before catching the first of our 4 trains back to Windsor - to Bourne End.

In the evening most of us went to the Windsor and Eton Brewery Tap.

Nobody dared the Dragon Burger challenge, though. Here we are at our upstairs tables.

Well that was another great day with so much to see and do. You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route in this GPX file or here on MapMyWalk (but my phone ran out of battery before the end so it is accurate only for the first 12 miles or so).