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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 7 February 2016

Sunday Walk 2 – Towpaths and riverside paths to Hampton Court

Extra Walk 45 – West Byfleet to Hampton Court
Length: 17.2 km (10.7 miles). Toughness: 1/10

10:11 Guildford train from Waterloo (Vauxhall 10:16, Clapham Jct 10:21, etc), arriving West Byfleet at 10:55. If you've got a travel card for Zone 6 you'll just need a single from Surbiton to West Byfleet; if not, buy a return to West Byfleet (but see below).

Trains return from Hampton Court (in TfL Zone 6) to Waterloo at 05 & 35 minutes past the hour. If the South West Trains staff are in a good mood your return to West Byfleet will be accepted, but you might be required to buy a single to Surbiton where the two lines meet.

If you want a break from excessively muddy winter walks this one should do the trick, as much of it is along canal towpaths and riverside paths. Navigation shouldn't be a problem, of course, but you'll find the walk document helpful for a tricky section at Weybridge as well as its comments about the hostelries en route. The first possible lunch pub is the Old Crown at Weybridge, with several more at Walton Bridge and beyond. At the end of the walk Hampton Court has several pubs catering for tourists but I would have said that the cafés and tearooms in East Molesey were a better bet for tea. Alternatively, cross Hampton Court bridge for a quick look around the Palace gardens (free in winter) and have tea in its Tiltyard Café.

You'll need to print the (brief) directions from the Extra Walk 45 page.
T=swc.45

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Train cancelled ar 10:21- taking now 10:51 to West Byfleet. Phone 07875826366

PeteB said...

n=17 on this walk (including the intrepid poodle and the 11 year old son of an old regular) with the weather w=fine-and-sunny-but-becoming-cloudy-and-bleak-later. This walk was undermined a little by the scheduled train refusing to leave Waterloo station so we all set off from West Byfleet about 40 mins later than anticipated. (One regular had ended up doing the walk in reverse from Kingston with the intention of ending in Weybridge!)

A gentle virtually mud-free waterside amble with a fine lunchtime pub but the group fragmented somewhat in the afternoon and I ended up at Hampton Court at 3.45pm with the intention of crossing Hampton Court Park to Kingston - and rekindling happy early 70s student memories of loafing in the park on sunny days with friends, cheap wine and......er other substances -but after tea and cake and with a sore right foot and unsure when the park closed I settled for the 4.,35pm train back to London. Hope all others enjoyed their walk.