Day 1 Berrylands to Hatton Cross

Well, who knew there was a scenic route to Hatton Cross?! Perhaps the glorious, first of May weather made a difference.









I'll be seeing a lot of these









 

The route of the London Loop passes really quite close to my house so I ambled the two thirds of a mile to the first London Loop sign complete with its kestrel. Then on familiar paths towards Kingston but not for long, I was following the Hogsmill and its midges in, under and through the town hosting Surrey County Council even though the county town is Guildford. I never knew there were so many twists and turns and backwaters and I have lived in the area for a while now. I suppose it's because I'm from norf of the river really (an adoptive womble).



Hogsmill has a Community Garden

Approaching Kingston Bridge, I spotted lots of runners on the far shore of the river. It turns out that it was the Ranelagh Richmond half marathon. Good luck to those who ran and I'm sure there were a few nutters who would have done a longer run last week in London or the week before in Brighton too. I was headed to Bushy Park, which although I have visited a few times, I really haven't frequented as much as I might. It's flat, it has deer and, I found, it's bigger than I thought. It has the Diana Fountain (not that Diana), cricket pitches, playgrounds, the lovely Woodland Gardens, a junior parkrun and plenty of folk out enjoying the glorious weather. There were, of course, things I would have liked to investigate further but unusually I did have a time constraint on today's walk. More of that later.





Deer in Bushy Park



 

Out of Bushy Park, a quick foray into some residential streets of Teddington found me on a long straight route down the side of Fulwell Golf Club. Houses, gardens and lots of thinking about house prices :-( After skirting Hampton Golf Course and a David Lloyd club (which hosted my first rat siting of the week!), there was suburban tarmac treading before discovering the River Crane. Not quite so many midges as the Hogsmill, thank goodness. It was pleasant, the river is fairly shallow (at present), there seem to be a lot of barricades in the water, presumably to guide the water flows when it is heavier. The water must flow more at times as from the 16th century there were gunpowder mills that used the waters of the Crane to drive their millwheels. There is a Shot Tower remaining which is now a visitor centre for the local conservancy area. The bluebells are out in force at the moment and look gorgeous.

Scenic view of the Shot Tower

 

Bench by the River Crane

The walking route leaves the river for a stroll along the A314 before turning in to cross Hounslow Heath. From a road I know really well as a route to Heathrow, the Heath is a place I was completely ignorant of. It's a fair size being 82 hectares compared to 445 for Bushy Park but it used to be much bigger at 1600 hectares. And it's historic, apparently. The route in that I took was a tad disappointing with the first stile of the holiday being completely surrounded by litter. The heath itself seemed underused in that I saw few people considering how lovely the weather was. It's not pretty but it is a nature reserve, so it does serve a useful purpose in addition to dog walking. Perhaps if I go back another day with more time I'll discover the nicer bits.

After the Heath, I rejoined the River Crane, found another shot tower this one rather more dilapidated. I then successfully lost my way! At this point local knowledge became a dangerous thing. Usually my sense of direction is ok so when I decide to go off up this road here it turns out ok. But when it turns into a dead end on an industrial estate without even a pedestrian cut-through it's time to retrace my steps. So near yet so far. Garmin showed me how close I was too - parallel to where I should have been! This added a nice level of stress near the end of the walk, an extra 0.8 of a mile or so. I finally got to Hatton Cross and walked straight onto an X26 bus to go back to Kingston.