Length: 15.7 km (9.8 miles) Option to extend to Marlow (e/o 3.5 miles or Maidenhead e/o 4 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10 (more if muddy)
London Marylebone: 10-06 hrs Chilterns service to Oxford
Arrive Gerrards Cross: 10-25 hrs
Return
Cookham to London Paddington, changing at Maidenhead: 15-13, 16-16, 17-32, 18-02 and 18-32 hrs
Marlow to Paddington, changing at Bourne End and Maidenhead: 18 & 48 mins past the hour
Maidenhead to Paddington: Great Western service at approx 24 & 54 mins past hour
Elizabeth line service: 11, 29, 41 & 59 mins past the hour
Rail ticket
Either separate singles from the edge of your travel card, or buy an all zones travel card plus a single from the edge of the zones to Gerrards Cross, plus a single from Cookham to the boundary of the travel card. Note: Holders of Freedom passes can travel free on Elizabeth Line trains from Maidenhead back to Paddington. If travelling to Marylebone by LT u'ground, allow a little more time than usual this morning - some lines have 15 minute gaps between trains on NY Day morning.
We last posted this walk as one of our NY Day walks on 01 January 2019, and I recall it worked well. We do not stop for lunch in Littleworth Common, which we usually do on his walk, but instead we stop in the church grounds above Hedgerley for a break to toast in the New Year. I will bring along the basic supply of champagne but if one or two of you could bring along a back up bottle of champers that would be appreciated. If others could bring along some nibbles then we can really enjoy our NY "elevenses" celebration.
After Hedgerley we complete the rest of the walk in one steady go - a nice variety of woods and open countryside, ending beside the River Thames. We should reach Cookham around 2-30 pm, where I have made a generic booking for a late lunch at the Kings Arms pub for 2-30 pm. At the moment the pub still has places and they have asked me to ask any of you who wishes to have lunch with the group to book by or soonest after c.o.b this Friday 15 December. We dined here on NY Day 2023 (after a truncated Cookham to Maidenhead walk due to travel delays ) and we enjoyed the experience. To book, go on-line and fill out the form. Please make sure in the special requests box you quote you are part of the SWC - and the pub's management will group us together. If you do not receive a receipt or acknowledgement of your online booking (which happened to me today) try the following:
enquiry@thekingsarmscookham.co.uk attn. Charlotte. Again, please mention you are with the SWC.
After our late lunch, you can either call it a day and head for Cookham railway station - allow 20 mins for the once an hour service, or - and depending on the weather and how much light there is today from the moon and stars - head along the river then across meadows to Marlow, or enjoy a Thames path walk in the other direction, starting below Cliveden and ending in Maidenhead.
T=1.40
Enjoy !
Walk Directions are here L=1.40
1 comment:
10 of us got the Bicester Village Express at 10.06 and 2 got the next one and caught us up (though not till after the drinks stop), so a very cheerful n=12 on this walk. The weather was cheerful too, at least initially: w=sunny-to-start, then cloudy: not raining till we were safe in the pub at the end.
The sun was still out when we stopped in Hedgerley churchyard to toast the New Year. Here there was a battle of the champagne bottles, almost everyone producing at least one. In the end we deferred to our walk poster and drunk the two he had brought. A bottle of sloe gin also slipped in under the radar. But the top salesperson of the day was the supplier of a truly heroic amount of very delicious homemade Romanian cake, all of which eventually found a home.
Two melted away at this point, presumably walking back to Gerrards Cross. The rest of us splashed on through sometimes waterlogged woods and fields, generally enjoying being out and about, and having happy chat about this and that. We had a last little paddle in the final field before Cookham and got to the King’s Arms at about 2.45pm.
Four went straight to the station. Five of us had a cosy meal and one had his trademark cider and chips (the rustic chunky ones, not the posh parmesan ones…). Two got the 4.13 train and four of us lingered over coffees to get the 5.35. More alcohol was produced on this, which yours truly drank a little of, just to be polite you understand….
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