Length: full walk to Maidenhead - 17 km (10.6 miles)
Cookham Circular - 11.3 km (7 miles)
Cookham to Marlow - 16 km (9.9 miles)
Toughness: all walks - 3 out of 10
London Paddington: 09-41 hrs Elizabeth Line to Reading Ealing Broadway: 09-49 hrs
Arrive Maidenhead: 10-18 hrs Change trains
Leave Maidenhead: 10-29 hrs Great Western service from Maidenhead to Marlow
Arrive Cookham: 10-36 hrs
Return
Cookham to Paddington: 16 mins past the hour, changing at Maidenhead
Marlow to Paddington: 01 mins past the hour, changing at Maidenhead
Maidenhead to Paddington: 5 trains an hour (Elizabeth Line and Great Western) at approx 07, 19, 30, 37 and 49 mins past the hour
Taplow to Paddington: Elizabeth line trains at 10 and 40 mins past the hour
Rail ticket Holders of London Councils Freedom Passes can travel free of charge on Elizabeth line trains from Paddington to Maidenhead. They will just require day returns from Maidenhead to Cookham or Marlow. Everyone else: but a day return to Cookham or Marlow
Travel tip: if travelling by underground to Paddington, allow a little extra time. Some u/g lines have gaps of 15 minutes between trains on NY morning.
Welcome to our New Year's Day Walk West ! The early posting is to allow you to make a reservation at the lunch pub - see below.
We return to Cookham for this year's NYD walk. Once again we will celebrate the arrival of the New Year by toasting it in with some champagne. I will bring along the basic supplies but if one or two of you could bring along a spare bottle then we can have an ever better time ! Likewise, some nibbles always go down well if some of you could bring some with you.
Leaving Cookham we pass through Cookham Dean and head for Bisham Woods. These take us to Winter Hill, where I suggest we stop for our champagne break, whilst enjoying the fine view below of the River Thames valley. After our champagne stop it is downhill to cross some grassy fields as we head for the River. We now follow the tow path all the way to Cookham.
Our suggested lunch stop today is the King's Arms pub in the centre of town. Making a reservation is essential - and the sooner you try to do this the better (some time slots are already fully booked). Try to get the 1-30 pm slot, or as close to it as possible. I have made a reservation for a few of our NYD regulars. The pub requires a deposit of £ 10 a head, so if someone else is making a booking on your behalf, please bring along a tenner with you to reimburse the booker.
After lunch you can call it a day by walking to Cookham railway station for your journey home. Or you can continue your walk - first in failing light then in the dark - to Maidenhead, Marlow or even Taplow, whatever tickles your fancy. Weather conditions on the day might influence your decision.
This is usually a lovely way to start our SWC walking New Year and let's hope closer to the day our plans are not thwarted by rail strikes or other disruptions.
T=1.24
Walk Directions are here: L=1.24
5 comments:
Marcus, thanks for posting. Will you and regulars be going for 3-course option?
Hi Anonymous, I expect most will opt for the a la carte menu, and order a main course, but by all means, if you have room for 3 courses after any Christmas excesses, go for it !
Hi, just wondering if anyone has a sense of how muddy this route is likely to be? Got an injury which means I can't wear boots for a bit but desperately want to do a New Year's day walk.
Thanks in advance
The 09.41 Elizabeth line train starts from Paddington main line platforms 11 or 12. (not the underground Elizabeth line platforms A or B). One could get an earlier Elizabeth Line service from central London to Heathrow and change on to this service at Ealing Broadway at 09.49 For further details see below
https://content.tfl.gov.uk/elizabeth-line-december-2022.pdf
We managed to salvage today's New Year's Day celebratory walk after a near disastrous start. I arrived at Paddington station early so took the Great Western service to Didcot Parkway as far as Maidenhead, leaving me plenty of time to wait for walking colleagues to arrive on the Elizabeth Line posted service some twenty minutes later. I became a little concerned when the train indicator board started to show the arrival time of the Elizabeth Line service being delayed by two minutes, then five, then ten. A service delayed message next appeared before an announcement came over the station tannoy advising the service was now cancelled. Apparently, the train had broken down at Slough and all passengers had to alight. What to do ? I didn't fancy lugging my two bottles of shampoo around the morning leg of the walk unopened, but I went ahead and caught the connection to Cookham, expecting to walk alone and do just that. At Cookham to my delight and relief there were three "car driver" walkers waiting for the arrival of the Marlow service, with a well behaved eighteen month old cocker spaniel, whose owner sensibly kept him on a lead for the entire walk. At this point I received a text from colleagues stranded at Slough, followed by a phone call from one of them. The fourteen SWC walkers at Slough decided to do a Taplow to Cookham walk, meaning they would arrive at the lunch pub in Cookham an hour before me. A quick conversation with the management of said pub, who were very accommodating and understanding of our situation, and all started to look well. And so it proved to be. The four of us on the walk proper had an enjoyable morning leg, and we stopped as planned on Winter Hill where we toasted in the New Year, relieving me of fifty percent of my bottle weight. Onwards then across some muddy fields to Cookham via the River Thames, where two of my companions stopped off at the riverside Bounty pub for lunch - I hope they had an enjoyable stop.. My companion with her dog said goodbye to me outside the Kings Arms pub and made for Cookham railway station where she had parked up. Inside the pub I found nine of the Taplow starters at a table for ten, very kindly leaving a place for me. Three of their sandwichers joined us for a drink, whilst the remaining two in their group had made for Cookham railway station and home for an early bath. To my relief, and pleasure, the Taplow walkers had enjoyed a champagne stop of their own on their walk - and they had some nice 'photos to prove it ! Our lunch at the Kings Arms was fine, the service friendly, and I even managed to recoup my deposit by some soft shoe shuffling when the bill arrived.
After lunch we split up. Some went to the Sir Stanley Spencer Gallery before returning home from Cookham. Three set off on a loop from the town to the river then back to Cookham station, whilst six of us headed for Marlow., on the Thames path before walking over some muddy fields. Our timing was fortunate - the light was failing as we entered the Marlow Donkey pub for a quick drink before heading the short distance to Marlow railway station to catch the 17-01 service. On the train we drank the second bottle of the shampoo I had lugged around all darn day, and anaesthetised, we alighted at Maidenhead to connect with a Great Western service to Paddington.
Today we mustered n=18
As for the weather: it was w=overcast-but-very-mild. The only rain we encountered arrived as the six of us approached Marlow. There was a lot of slippery mud on the main walk and the route to Marlow was also muddy. Conditions under foot were not too bad from Taplow to Cookham.
It was a nice way to start our SWC walking year - in delightful SWC company.
Finally, let me thank Sandy and Wednesday walkers for presenting me with a bottle of best Scottish Highland malt whiskey which I will enjoy on a winter's evening.
From me - it's over and out !
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