Length: 17 km (10.6 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10 No steep hills today Modest inclines in Valley Gardens
London Waterloo: 09-50 hrs South Western service to Reading Clapham Junction: 09-58 hrs
Arrive Sunningdale: 10-38 hrs
Return
Windsor & Eton Riverside to Waterloo: 23 and 53 mins past the hour
Rail ticket: today you will need a day return to Windsor & Eton Riverside plus a single from Staines to Sunningdale
As Her Majesty is spending the festive season at Windsor Castle this year she might appreciate a few scruffy, muddy SWC walkers popping in to pay their respects and scrounge a cup of tea - but not a lot.....
No matter, the SWC can make do with this undemanding walk through the royal parkland with its herds of deer. But before that, we enjoy Virginia Water - and the River Thames (yes, our water feature for today) and Valley Gardens. Whilst it is the wrong time of year for the azaleas, the gardens are still pretty and pleasant to walk through. On then to the Totem Pole and Savill Gardens, where we stop for lunch at the Savill Garden Restaurant, a cafeteria managed by Benugo. It's quite nice and the food is 'twixt OK to good. The nearby take-away kiosk might be open, if sandwichers wish to add to their picnics. Your picnic spot is the nearby Obelisk Pond.
Fed and watered, we walk down Rhododendron Drive to Cow Pond. We soon pass Royal Lodges before entering the Deer Park, where we have a choice of routes. If it is muddy we can head direct on tarmac ways to the Copper Horse statue of King Whoever, showing off on his charger, before we embark on The Long Walk. The alternative route has us crossing parkland and through woodland before joining the Long Walk a bit further north. At the top of the Walk is Windsor Castle. The Long walk is a tease, as the castle never seems to get any nearer as we plod on. But do persevere - and eventually the castle is directly in front of us. Here we swing left to enter the town. We should find quite a few establishments open (Covid rules permitting after Boxing Day) for tea or a tincture.
T=1.18
Walk Directions are here: L=1.18
1 comment:
Just n=4 today for this pleasant walk to Windsor. Maybe the wet morning put others off. We did incur w=rain-or-drizzle-until-lunchtime-with-some-sunshine-breaking-through-later. It was unseasonably mild which made choice of walking gear difficult. But no matter, we enjoyed the opening leg of the walk, through some slippery mud which was mostly manageable. Even devoid of azaleas in bloom, the walk through Valley Gardens was as lovely as ever. Arriving at Savill Gardens Cafeteria at 1 pm we found the caff very busy but a table was found for us and service was prompt and friendly. Very acceptable food arrived soon after to keep the fires burning for the afternoon leg of our walk. It took our waiter five attempts to present us with the correct bill, which we eventually found funny, but apart from this, the caff was a very pleasant experience.
We then took the original TO Book route through Windsor Great Park, avoiding the start of the Long Walk, and viewing at close-up large herds of deer, before joining the Long Walk for the long slog to Windsor Castle. We were a bit mud-splattered by the time we reached its precincts, so we cancelled our plan to take tea with Madge and instead headed for the Royal Windsor Railway Shopping Centre where we enjoyed tea at the Cinnamon Cafe. The town was abuzz with visitors - I have never seen it so busy - so we were fortunate to find a free table in the cafe of my choice.
Trains were running and on time today which helped make the day an enjoyable one.
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