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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.

Sunday 31 May 2015

Sunday Walk – Burnham Beeches and the Thames

Book 1 Walk 40 (extended) – Gerrards Cross to Maidenhead
Length: 21.2 km (13.2 miles). Toughness: 3/10

10:20 Beaconsfield train from Marylebone (West Ruislip [Central Line] 10:42), arriving Gerrards Cross at 10:55.

There are three trains an hour from Maidenhead to Paddington, at irregular times but fairly evenly spaced out. The fastest ones (calling only at Slough) are at around 45-50 minutes past the hour.

You can't get a day return for this walk as the two stations are on lines operated by different rail companies. You may find it cheaper to get an All Zones Travelcard plus singles to/from the Zone 6 boundary.

The standard Book 1 walk is a nicely varied stroll through parkland and the extensive woods of Burnham Beeches to the riverside village of Cookham, and if you take the suggested extension to Maidenhead you'll finish the day along one of the loveliest stretches of the Thames. Lunch is at the Jolly Woodman after about two hours' walking; as usual on a Sunday, call ahead if you want to be sure of a table inside. Cookham has several nice places for a mid-afternoon refreshment stop and you could also visit the Stanley Spencer Gallery.

You'll need to bring Book 1 or print the directions from the Walk 40 and Walk 24 pages. You don't really need the latter for the riverside extension, of course, but it describes a route to Maidenhead station which enables you to bypass the large town centre.

1 comment:

cyber said...

I see on the gpx files that we can do both walks (40 + 24) fully, which makes a 20ml one in the end. Tempting indeed.