E.Molesey to Walton-on-Thames

Sunday was bright and sunny*, if a tad cold, and as I'd had a football day on Saturday, I readily agreed to a walk with the Margravina. Let's go by the river for a change, I said, park in Bushy Park then walk from Hampton Court to Kingston then back down to the car through Bushy Park (a nice D-shaped route). Parking proved as difficult as we expected (the World and his wife, plus kids and Labradoodle were out). So an off the cuff Plan B was to cross the river by Hampton Court Bridge and try to park along Riverbank or as close to it as we could. We ended up having to go so far down that we changed walking route and headed upstream rather than down.

* isn't that tautological?

There and Back Again: from the red dot towards top right, to the blue dot, bottom left and back. Around 6 miles by the Thames river path. Hampton Court Palace top right.

This turned out to be one of those serendipitous eventualities, for we had a wonderful walk. The number of walkers soon reduced as we got further from the starting point (until we got to the other end). It's not far and it's flat! There were many stops for photo opportunities on the way out. We earned our roast dinner at the pub by the blue dot, and hot-footed it back to the car the way we had come. Only with far fewer stops.

[Incidentally, Blogger is playing up again. At least when trying to post pictures. Messing up the order if you post more than a few at a time, then making them disappear when you try to type captions.]

Some impressive house boats along this stretch (by Ash and Taggs Islands)

Surely one of the oldest cricket clubs.

View of Hampton riverside. This is in Greater London! Incidentally, the top side of the river on the map is within Greater London, the bottom side of the map is in Surrey. The London side presented the more picturesque buildings by and large. The Surrey side is hardly any less developed, but "oh no, we couldn't possibly be included in London, we're Sarrey don't you know". Such were the vagaries of local government reorganisation in the early 60s.

The Astoria Houseboat, built for music hall impresario Fred Karno in 1913. Fred entertained Charlie Chaplin here. Moored on the Middlesex (left) bank, near Hampton. Karno had a hotel built on Taggs Island, 'the Karsino', which later became the 'Thames Riviera'. The 111 bus from Kingston to Heathrow has recorded announcements for the upcoming stops, one of which is 'Thames Riviera'.

Garrick Villa (former residence of ac-tor David Garrick). Also another bus stop! 

Garrick's temple (now the wrong side of the road from the villa

St Mary's Church, Hampton

This and the next few pics are plaques on concrete plinths that form part of a monument to the history of Hurst Park, Molesey, Surrey. Many concern sporting events in the 18th and 19th centuries which attracted crowds up to 200,000!

If you stand on the circle with the appropriate month name your shadow tells the time. Almost right.

Almost snapped a kingfisher. Dithered too long over getting the right pic: don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good! I had never seen one so close before. Weird and stunning looking creature.

This brick wall, backed and topped with an earth bank got me thinking of 'Vauban' fortifications. It was just an old reservoir

What's this?

Real defensive works (tank traps)?

The Margravina, a pretty small human, showing the scale of the thing.

Looks like a life raft from an oil rig. But small.

Sunbury Lock. To the right is a weir. The water rushing down gave a magnificent display of power. On the lock side the river was calm as a mill pond, as seen in the next pic.

Someone's lawn in Sunbury (Middlesex bank)