Recent and planned long walks headed from Richmond north, north-east, east and south-east so it seemed fair to give south-west another try. We had been that way a few (three?) times either following the Thames or the Mole. This time I thought that we could head for the two large reservoirs near West Molesey. Feltham was chosen as the end-point simply because it is in Zone 6 so we could get home for free.
The walk started well enough as we went through the centre of Bushy Park. There was more traffic there than we would have liked despite the through route being closed as cars were still allowed to access the two car parks in the centre. Still, it was quiet enough for us to walk along the road.
We followed The Thames west for a while before heading for the reservoirs. The roads there were too busy for the walk to be relaxing and the pavements left a great deal to be desired. That proved to be the case for most of the rest of the walk and ultimately led to the failure of the plan.
There were some good points along the way, such as when we rejoined the river just before Walton-on-Thames. BP's International Centre for Business & Technology in Sunbury had some impressive modern buildings. An unnamed area of heath in Lower Feltham was a flowery delight and we took a slight detour to enjoy it. We took another short detour for Grosvenor Park in Feltham but as that is just a recreation ground this was scant reward for the extra steps.
The final ignominy was having to have my end of walk beer in a Wetherspoons in Feltham.
Far from the greatest walk ever but not the worst either, at least the weather was good, and covering 21 km was a decent result for four hour's effort.
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