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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 5 December 2020

Saturday Walk Sunningdale to Windsor - Virginia Water, Windsor Great Park, The Long Walk, and Windsor Castle

Book 1, Walk 18 - Sunningdale to Windsor

Length: 17 km (10.6 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10 (3 if muddy)


London Waterloo: 09-50 hrs    Southwest trains to Reading      Clapham Junction 09-58 hrs
Arrive Sunningdale: 10-38 hrs

Return

Windsor and Eton Riverside to Waterloo:  21 and 51 mins past the hour
Windsor and Eton Central to Paddington, changing at Slough: 05, 25 and 45 mins past the hour

Rail ticket:  buy a day return to Windsor and Eton Riverside  plus a single from Staines to Sunningdale.
If proposing to return from Windsor Central, it is probably best to buy separate singles

Please read our Covid rules before coming on today's walk and observe the rules all day

We had to abandon our attempt to do this walk a month ago due to Lockdown 2. Let's hope all is well for us to give it a go this Saturday.

This should make for a pleasant early winter's walk mostly on the level, without any demanding hills. There might be some muddy bits in places but hopefully not too much today. There might be some winter flowers in Valley Gardens and Savill Gardens during the morning leg of the walk, before we head via the Totem Poll for lunch at the usually good cafeteria in Savill Gardens - I'm assuming it will have reopened: if not, its takeaway service in its Potting Shed and its takeaway truck both serve hot and cold dishes. Picnickers should find a pleasant spot beside the lake nearby in the Gardens for your luncheon.
After lunch we head for Windsor Great Park for a very long, straight walk along .........The Long Walk, with Windsor Castle directly ahead of us, and seemingly never getting any closer !   But you will eventually get there if you plod on and persevere. 
Churches will have reopened for public services come Saturday and I presume Evensong will be celebrated in St George's Chapel, Windsor at 5-15 pm once again - but do check their website for yourselves if you would like this lovely ending to your walk. Otherwise, the usual fleshpots in Windsor await your custom for tea or something stronger before you return home from one of the two railway stations in town. 

It's good to be back !  And looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.
T=1.18
Walk directions are here: L=1.18

1 comment:

Marcus said...

n=11 alighted from the posted train and immediately split into two "bubbles" - of six snd five. At times during the morning the lead six were spotted beating the bounds, but alas, after Valley Gardens they were not seen again - I do hope they enjoyed their day as much as the five behind them did.
The Liphook walkers were unlucky today, as - like the Flitwick walkers - we enjoyed w=sunshine-for-most-of-the-day and despite it being cold, with no wind to speak of, conditions for winter walking were near perfect.
The route was firm under foot and mostly mud-free and it was good to see many families out-and-about, enjoying post-lockdown "freedom". The gardens were devoid of their colourful flowers resplendent in the month of May but the lovely sunshine today made up for this which otherwise worked well for a winter's outing. The restaurant in Savill Gardens was doing a roaring trade in very well managed Covid-compliant conditions and two of us enjoyed good lunches indoors with the other three in our bubble joining us for a coffee.
The afternoon leg was equally enjoyable - we took the original route once inside the Great Park - and having observed a vast herd of deer from a safe distance we joined the Long Walk for the long haul to Windsor Castle. Ones feet were complaining by the time we reached Windsor, but tea taken in the precincts of the former Windsor Royal Railway Station hit the spot very nicely and we were fully recovered by the time we reached the Riverside railway station, to catch the 16-21 hrs service back to London.
It was nice to be back in SWC company after lockdown.