Colganology2: A walk along the Thames

I like being near water. I think most of us do.

The sea was a big part of my childhood - you can't grow up in Cornwall without it becoming a part of who you are. After all, Cornwall is surrounded by sea on three sides.

I spent the first part of my childhood in Penzance on the coast. But then we moved inland to Helston, which was two miles from the sea. However, we did have a small river called the Cober that was fun to splash around in. And it emptied into Cornwall's largest fresh water lake, The Loe. One of my great pleasures as a teenager was walking from Helston, through the Penrose estate and around The Loe, to arrive at the sea at Loe Bar and the fishing village of Porthleven.

However, I never really experienced the pleasure of walking alongside a truly big river until I moved to the South East.

It was during my working life in London that I came to love the Thames. I have so many photos of the great river taken over the course of three decades. Here are just a few.

But then I moved to the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire and got to enjoy a whole different stretch of the river.

The Thames rises as a series of small springs near to Cirencester in Gloucestershire. It flows on through the Cotswolds, being fed by several smaller rivers and streams until it reaches the City of Oxford where, traditionally, the river is sometimes called the Isis. Some scholars suggest that it's only when it leaves Oxford and merges with the river Thame that it becomes the Thame-Isis or Thames.

It then reaches my part of the world flowing on through places like Reading (Berkshire), Henley (Oxon) and then into Buckinghamshire at Marlow - around seven miles from where I live. Then it turns back into Berkshire to pass through Maidenhead and Windsor and Eton before entering the outer reaches of London at Twickenham and Richmond. Then it's on past Battersea, through Westminster, around the Isle of Dogs, and through the City of London and the old docklands and wharves of Greenwich and Silvertown. Once free of the city it carries on through Essex and Kent where the river gets ever wider, becoming the estuary that finally joins the North Sea at Canvey Island and Southend-on-Sea.

But let's rewind to the Buckinghamshire section and visit a spot between Marlow and Maidenhead near the little town of Bourne End. It's a favourite dog walking spot for me during the Summer when the trees are in bloom, the river is full of pleasure cruisers and rowing boats (the Olympic rowing teams use this stretch of the Thames for practice) and it's just a lovely place to be. I did write a blogpost last year about this stretch of the Thames - known as Spade Oak Reach - when a couple of chums and I went boating (see here).

Here are some photos from last Summer of a walk along the North bank of the same stretch. My route, was from Bourne End (X) to Marlow (Y) and back again:

Okay, so it's not so much fun if you're nervous of cows (I'm not) as a couple of fields you walk through are occupied and the cattle do wander down to the river for a drink in a few small areas that look like tiny sandy beaches. It's a good place for a paddle too.

But, on this occasion, I walked on to Marlow itself, which has a lovely old town centre and a pretty little single track suspension bridge. Lots of decent pubs and restaurants too - including several owned by Tom Kerridge such as the Michelin-starred Hand and Flowers. But a hefty meal was not a good idea because I had to walk all the way back to my car.