Thames Path: Day 5 - Cookham to Hampton Wick

Another of the long days.  And again, like yesterday, it took no time at all to get the legs started; which was really rather nice indeed.

The sun was coming up as I set off for the day, and the river was glassy-flat in contrast with the phenomenal choppiness due to the high winds yesterday.

This is one of my favourite types of trail; a tree-lined track, littered with dry leaves.  Simply lovely!

And just look at that mirror-flat Thames!  No wind made progress less frustrating than yesterday's horrible head-wind which was driving me nuts at times.

And sun too!

Coming into Staines(-upon-Thames), you realise that Staines has got some really rather pretty areas.  It's not all densely packed housing estates under the Heathrow flight path...

Some people's gardens are interrupted by Thames Path.

And there are some bloody huge mansions with bloody huge yachts parked outside.

Somehow, I managed to miss the two possible brunch stops I'd planned in Runnymede but thankfully there was a Slug and Lettuce on the river in Staines where I was just in time for a fry up.

And avoided the toast :o)  But, as with yesterday, it took a while to get the body spun back up again and I never quite managed it really.  Still sticking to 8:2 run:walk, but quite on the slow side.

More massive yachts.  And then there's this bit down the side of a road, all the way to Shepperton.

This time, when I got to the ferry at Shepperton, I was brave enough to ring the bell to summon the ferry.  I was there 4 minutes before the next due time; which helped.  And I really wanted to avoid the north bank section which takes you away from the river by quite a bit and along a main road.

£2 and less than a minute to cross!  And not long to go to reach Hampton Wick, my last over-night stopping place.

It looks deserted, and that's because it's about 2pm on a weekday.

Welcome to Hampton!

The signs lie... (More on this on day 6.  Quite a lot more.)  This is actually 150 miles from the source, but at the time I almost threw a strop as 147 miles meant I had a lot more than 2 miles to go to finish for the day and my feet were sore and I was starting to get a bit fed up with that.  2 miles further on,  I was winding around Hampton Court to Hampton Wick and the B&B for the night.

The day started well with not-so-creaky legs, sore feet and no injuries.  Another 33.5 miles done (oh dear, that should have been 35 miles...) and "only" 31.5 to go tomorrow (well, given today was short, that was going to be a bit further now, wasn't it?).  Almost there!