The Thames Path Project is a personal mission to walk the entire length of the Thames Path from the Thames Barrier in London to the river's source in Gloucestershire.

Fairly tortuous travel plans required for this stage – 3 walks and 3 trains to get to the start at Maidenhead and 1 walk, 4 trains and a lift to get back home. (My wife kindly picks me up from Staines). Well worth it though. This is the last stage where I have walked major parts of the route before, so it’s going to be particularly interesting from now on.

The weather was pleasant – mostly sunny and not quite as windy as I’d expected. I had nobody accompanying me but met a few interesting characters – in particular some friendly dogs. The path runs beside large areas of common land and ancient marshland – I’d like to come back and explore parts of it particularly around Cookham. There are a number of famous novels based or written in and around the area. I guess I should read ‘Three Men in a Boat’ sometime – parts of which were apparently written in the ‘Two Brewers’ pub in Marlow, where I sampled a very pleasant pint.

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