Maidenhead – Thames Path - Cookham – Bourne End – Marlow

28 Jan 2006

• Total distance: 8 miles.
• Start point: Maidenhead Bridge.
• Weather: Sunny, cold.
• Temperature at start: 5C.
• Muddiness rating: **** in places but mostly ** (*=dry, *****=awful)
• People passed: Around forty, most of them at Cookham.
• Step counter: Approx 15,000. My step-counter got reset somewhere along the way.
• Camera: Olympus C-5060W. Images taken before deletions = 85.

It’s easy to overlook the fact that one of the country’s foremost long distance footpaths comes right past our door. Naturally we envy those who can step out each day onto the Pennine Way or the Offa’s Dyke Path, but distance lends these things a wistful attraction. As you read this there are probably folk walking their dogs on the West Highland Way, gazing dreamily into the distance, thinking “One day, maybe one day, we’ll walk the Thames Path”.

The path is 184 miles long, and Maidenhead lies about three-quarters of the way from the source (Thameshead, near Swindon) to the end (the Thames Barrier). One day, maybe one day I’ll walk the whole thing but as I had to be in the pub by seven I rationed myself to the section between Maidenhead and Marlow.

Along the river to Boulters Lock I was struck by the intensity and saturation of the colours. Does the low light of a bright winter morning get polarised on its way to us? I think maybe it does, but I’ve never heard any theory to back it up. I’ve done some research on the information superhighway, but a Google search on “Really stonking colours on barges by Taplow paper mill” yielded nothing useful. This interweb will come to nothing, you mark my words.

The path is at its best between Maidenhead and Cookham. The bank opposite is elevated, and being part of the Cliveden estate the area’s natural predominance of beech has been carefully suppressed in the interest of colour, shape and texture. At Seven Gable Cottage, below the octagonal temple, the woods are a heady mix of the lemon and the mossy, the broadleaf and the deciduous, the spheroidal and the fastigiate, the campaniform and - er, well, you get the picture. My little one (left) won’t do it justice, that’s for sure.

Back on the west bank the path turns abruptly away from the main river channel and runs along Lulle Brook. The ground the other side is now called Odney Island, but in earlier times was known as Sashes Island. It was one of King Alfred’s refuges against invading Danes.

Upstream of Cookham the river widens and begins its curve around Winter Hill and Cockmarsh. The path follows the southern side, which is open pasture, in contrast to the other bank which is built upon almost continuously for two miles north of Cookham. Around Bourne End the riverside dwellings have a more workaday look about them, lacking the elaborate porticos and mock-Tudor satellite dishes of those further south.

As I walked past the Bounty Inn, a lady with dogs called out “Where is he?”

I glanced behind me. “Where’s who?”

“Where is he?” she demanded. I looked back at her, blankly.

“Oh - sorry! You’re a different man!” she shrieked.

I walked by, shaking my head and growling about muppets. After a mile I realised I was the muppet and did a sharp U-turn, because I should have been on the other side if the river. Passing the Bounty again on my way back to the railway bridge, I thought I’d give the dog lady the benefit of my rarely-seen forgiving side. “Did you find him?” I asked, politely.

“Find who?” she asked. She looked a bit different from how I remembered her, for some reason.

The penny suddenly dropped and I had to admit “Sorry - thought you were someone else!”

Hey, it’s a mistake anyone could have made.

After cautiously negotiating a glutinous and very slippery stretch of path near the A404 bridge I arrived at Marlow and set out to find the railway station, hoping that the Marlow Donkey was still running regularly, twenty years after I’d last used it.

And so it was. Every hour, like clockwork. I had just fifty seven minutes to wait for the next one.

Click here for map > ThamespathMap

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-- RodBird - 19 Feb 2006