Planning walking routes around constraints

This was one of those walks that I more or less made up as I went along stringing together bits of walks that I had done many times before but not in this way.

Surprisingly often, one of the key things I have to consider in planning walks is constraints. Elsewhere it may be major roads or railways and here it was gates to Richmond Park and bridges over the Thames.

Using these constraints this route can be summarised as Ham Gate, Bog Gate, Barnes Bridge, Richmond Lock Bridge, Richmond Gate and finally Ham Gate again.

Between those constraints were large spells spent in Richmond Park and in following the river. It was all very pleasant.

Despite all the greenery and flowing water, the highlight of the walk was my visit to Boutique cafe in East Sheen, a regular haunt, where I treated myself to a slice of carrot cake that was not only delicious but was also by far the largest slice I have ever seen. It was meant to be my elevenses but it did for lunch too.