London River Walk Seemed Like A Good Idea Part 1

Posted by admin in Out and About In London on October 11th, 2009 | no responses

I have started back on the path of getting myself back into serious shape. This once fit body, is not quite what it once was.

It is the usual story of getting married and the former wife was not happy (and quite rightly so) that I was spending 4 nights of the week at kickboxing or the gym, as well as the occasional Sunday afternoons.

In life you have to sometimes compromise, if you want a happy life.

The first stage of my path back to fitness is having a good long brisk walk every day. I try to do around 4-8 miles a day. Jogging isn’t for me, I find it funny watching joggers, so many of them seem to be in such pain as they run around the park. I also know too many joggers who never stop moaning about there fucking knees, they are in constant pain. However the addiction of having to run is too much for them to give up.

I was in the tourist information office in central London a while back and I picked up every leaflet that I thought might be useful. I of course just threw them into a box when I got home, and forgot about them. However a few days ago I flicked through them and found one, which seemed to be of interest called, “London’s Rural River Thames”. It was part of what is known as the Thames Path, a series of walkways along the River Thames.

So on Saturday afternoon, I thought since it was a nice day, I would go and experience some rural London. I don’t know about you, but the word rural conjures up an image of being in the countryside. Much like what you experience when your at Hampstead Heath, where you get the feeling that you are a million miles away from Gotham City, I meant to say London.

My plan was to walk from Kew Bridge to Albert Bridge, using the path on the north bank of the River Thames. It seemed like a challenge. It was roughly an 11 mile walk. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

I got my supplies ready for my London river walk, one can of energy drink and three mars bars, which fitted nicely into my jacket pocket. In hindsight I never needed the jacket, but this is London and the weather can change in a flash.

So I jumped on the overground train to Richmond and then the bus to Kew Bridge, which would take me to the start of my intended walk. The over ground train turned up bang on time, which was a good start. Aren’t those new trains a big improvement on the old ones.

Whilst sitting on the train I noticed the next stop was going to be Kew Gardens, so I thought, why not have a wee look of this famed park before I began my London walk. This was a big mistake as I never took a map with me.

I arrived at the gates of Kew Gardens and decided to give it a miss, the place was packed with tourists. I was looking for rural London not tourist trap London.

The problem I now had was, where the fuck was the start of my intended walk, if only I had slipped the Explore London leaflet into my pocket. Being an international traveller and adventurer, that has been lost in more countries than Jack Tweed has brain cells, I wasn’t too concerned.

I used my intuition, which on this case wasn’t too good. I walked in the wrong direction for 45 minutes. A phone call from the ghoulish and sinister Necrobus driver, saved the day for me. I jumped on a bus, nothing as exciting and as fun as the Necrobus, but it took me to Kew Bridge.

At this stage I was desperate to get on the trail, I headed to the nearest river bank, I didn’t know or care whether it was the south or north bank. I just needed to get on the rural river walk. I walked along the river path for about 2 minutes and the path was fenced off. WTF.

I thought fuck this, lets just cross over Kew Bridge and see if there was a better path on the other side. I had finally found what I had been looking for, there was a nice big sign showing various walks along the River Thames.

I had already walked about 5 miles or more. My enthusiasm for going for a long walk was seriously diminished and it was now around 3pm. I was tempted to just forget about the walk and head to the pub, which I could see in the distance. When I reached the pub it was packed full of people, so the walk seemed like a good idea again.

London River Walk Seemed Like A Good Idea Part 2

London River Walk Seemed Like A Good Idea Part 1

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