Newsletter January, 2025 - Walking Holiday

River Thames from high above at Cookham Dean. That’s standing water that you can see; not the river.

There’s a definite feeling that spring is round the corner. The days are getting longer, by about 3 minutes per day. That gives us 20 extra minutes per week! Early spring flowers are starting to appear: snow drops and crocuses.

We continue to be busy with bookings. Although traditionally slow over Christmas this has gathered pace in the second half of January.

Our winter projects (The Alternative Thames Path: Walking the Thames Path when Flooded) and the Kennet and Avon Canal Walk continue to progress. But we’re conscious that we only have 2 more months left before the start of the season. We’ve finished the field work on the first (our last day took us to Cookham Dean where the cover photo was taken) and are a little over half way with the second.

We’ve also spent some time reformatting our Detailed Itineraries. These are the personalised booklets that go with our packages. Aside from cosmetic changes we’re laminating the outside cover for added protection. And, for those taking rest days, we’re adding some suggestions of things to do.

The left bank of the Thames at the Westin Plaza

Thames Path Route News

All things considered, it doesn’t seem to have been a bad January. Obviously the Path is wet in many places. And, where it’s not wet, then it’s muddy. But that is to be expected at this time of year.

A petition has been started to urge the Environment Agency to repair the boardwalk to Marsh Lock approaching Henley (see below under long-standing diversions). As of writing there are 3.500 signatures. If you would like to sign, please click the link here. It’s easy to get caught in the swell of “this will never happen”. But sometimes it takes a child to get us out of our chair and appeal.

We’ve been a longstanding stalwart of walking on the right bank between Westminster and Tower Bridge: a traffic free route giving wonderful views of Westminster, St Paul’s and the Tower of London, not to mention such doorstop attractions as The Tate Modern and The Globe. Circumstance brought us to The Embankment, on the left bank, from where we decided to walk to Monument. It was surprisingly good making us question the wisdom of recommending the right bank. Whilst it’s true that the right bank is more traffic free, the left bank, with its network of embankment gardens, is not the highway we once thought. The thoughtful redevelopment around Upper Thames Street by the, mostly out of pecuniary reach, Westin Plaza has removed some of the awkward diversions that used to exist along this stretch. In fact, the only diversion lies for 200m just before Blackfriars Bridge. We will be covering this stretch of the Thames Path on our webinar on February 12.

Long-standing diversions:

The diversion to avoid the closed boardwalk at Marsh Lock Henley now starts at Shiplake and takes you briefly into the Chilterns. The diversion adds an extra 1.0 miles to the walk although feedback that we’ve received is that it feels much longer! But, bear in mind that the distance from Shiplake to Henley is already 2.4 miles. So the diversion is therefore 3.4 miles in total.

The diversion at Temple Bridge is still in place following its closure. The diversion makes use of the lane running from Temple to Bisham and then a road with a pavement into Marlow

And damage to a bridge over a tributary has caused a diversion from just past the Runnymede Hotel to shortly before Staines. The diversion uses the A308 (pavements) returning the walker to the riverbank just before the bridge at Staines. The diversion replaces about 0.6 miles of the route with minimal added distance. The diversion is set to be in place until 2026. The signage for this diversion is not that obvious. Also note that you might find that the barricades preventing you getting onto the bridge have been removed. If so, this will have been unauthorised.

Between Richmond and Kew a section of the embankment has collapsed into the river. There is no way around meaning that section of the Path is temporarily closed. We advise you to follow the left bank through Isleworth and Brentford. However, development work is ongoing at the Grand Union Canal in Brentford with the Path being blocked. This can be avoided by skipping the walk along the canal and following Brentford High Street instead.

For a full list please see our route alerts page on the website.

Marsh Lock: The broken bit

Other Thames Path News

The Crowne Plaza at Caversham has temporarily closed for refurbishment after being purchased by Village Hotels UK. We don’t know when it will reopen. And somehow, last year, we missed the reopening of the Baskerville at Shiplake for accommodation. The inn has been through a couple of changes of ownership and refurbishment, most recently reopening in April 2024 although at that time they weren’t offering accommodation. The Baskerville used to be silver on our platform but its pricing now makes it gold.

Staying on hotels, the Plough at Kelmscott has announced that they will be serving food every evening Monday through Saturday. For most readers this might not sound newsworthy so a little explanation is required. For the last couple of years the Plough has offered rooms throughout the week but did not serve evening food Sunday through Tuesday. Many the unsuspecting Thames Path walker arrived during those days with a lovely bed for the night but nothing to eat other than a packet of crisps! We have been quite vocal of this practice – how can you be a hotel if you don’t serve food? – not booking people there on those days and alerting our “baggage transfer only” walkers a day or so ahead of time. It also had a knock on effect on the fantastic Manor Farm bed and breakfast. Being a working farm, they have enough to do without cooking evening meals. So, hopefully, this means we can place people at both the Plough and Manor Farm for six days in the week.

We mentioned in the last newsletter about the exploits of Ed Pratt who, last summer, attempted to travel down the Thames without ever leaving it. He took 2.5 days to reach Cricklade, a walk that normally takes a day. His latest chapter is now available on YouTube. where he reaches Lechlade. Anyone who has called in at The Riverside in Lechlade might just recognise Gareth the landlord.

Finally a date to put in your calendars, for whatever reason, is Saturday July 26 when the Thames Path Mighty Hike takes place. This is a full marathon walk from Windsor to Henley in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. A less popular but much more arduous endurance test took place since our last newsletter which was the 2025 Spine Race. This follows the 268 mile Pennine Way which, even in summer, is an arduous three week walk (as the author can twice attest to). Get this: it’s held in January and this year’s winner finished in just under 83 hours! We had a little bit of an insight this year as a (younger) friend of ours entered the competition finishing a credible 103 hours.

Plough, Kelmscott

The Ridgeway

We’ve been heartened by the numbers of people asking us to help them with The Ridgeway. Based on bookings to date this now represents about 25% of our business. We had two insightful feedbacks in close succession which helped us enormously – and it was all about taxis!

It seems that a number of walking holiday companies organise a pick up on The Ridgeway to take you to your hotel. From speaking with walkers, past experience suggests that they are left either rushing for the pick up; or arriving at the pick-up location and waiting in the (dare we say?) cold and rain. What attracted them to our itineraries was that all the accommodations that we offer are within walking distance of the trails. By the way, we also know that some of our competitors put you in a single location for 3 nights and shuttle you back and forth. Not exactly “inn to inn walking” as described.

Camino Ingles/St James’ Way

In January, a deputation representing the Camino Inglés from Northern Spain were guests at the Confraternity of St James’ AGM, and were very excited about the development of the St James’ Way. They are looking to fund three “Mouteiras”, distance stones, to be placed at Reading Abbey, Winchester and Southampton. And in Winchester, the Confraternity are trying to get the authorities to approve the placement of 25 of bronze scallops along the route of the St James’ Way through the city for pilgrims to follow.

Meanwhile Reading Museum, who act as the Pilgrim’s Office and register pilgrims, recorded 315 pilgrims up to September 2024. The museum is not always open, and many walkers don’t register. So a conservative estimate for last year was between 500 and 1,000 pilgrims. Incidentally the numbers arriving in Santiago from around Europe is around 0.5 million.

Winter Webinars

We are nearly through with our webinars with just two remaining:

Wed 5/2 St James’ Way/Camino Ingles
Wed 12/2 Thames Path: Windsor to Woolwich

You can register for these on our Walking.Holiday website here.

Kennet and Avon Canal Walk for 2025

We have made further progress along the canal reaching the “summit” just past Crofton, home to the world-famous steam-driven beam engines which can pump water out of the nearby Wilton Water to feed the canal. Nearby is Wolf Hall, home to the Seymour family, from which Hilary Mantel chose to name her trilogy.

Just past the summit is Bruce Tunnel, the only time that the walker must temporarily leave the canal for the 0.5km length. A couple of locks further on is Wootton Rivers. From here until Devizes, 15 miles further on, there are no locks meaning it’s completely flat, the canal contouring the southern slopes of the Marlborough Downs with The Ridgeway being to the north. Half way along, a half mile from the canal, is the town of Pewsey with an infant River Avon flowing through. Past Pewsey is the Crop Circle Museum at Honeystreet.

From Devizes we will face the steep downhill staircase of Caen Hill, a flight of 29 locks in just 2 miles. This is one walk where you can definitively say that it’s downhill all the way – without any uphill bits!

We’ve left you with a few more shots of the canal.

And, finally, Jim, who is one of our drivers, has returned safe and sound from New Zealand having competed in and completed the IronMan70.3 World Championships. This involves a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and culminating in a half-marathon of 13.1 miles. Well done Jim.

That’s all folks. See you on the Trail.