SWC walk 189 - Langley to Cookham
Length: 20.1km (12.8 miles) - this is my estimate: I think the distance on the website for this walk (13.7 miles) is slightly overstated
10.06 train from Paddington (10.15 Ealing Broadway) to Langley (Berks), arriving 10.34
Buy a day return to Cookham, though if you are up for the moonlight walk option, then a day return to Marlow might be better.
** This is something a bit different from the usual SWC walk, as it is a map-led walk, ie there are no written directions. A GPS file is available, otherwise print off OS maps from this page or bring OS Explorer Map 172 which has all but the very first few hundred metres of the route. Basic information about the walk and its lunch options is on this page.
** As with all SWC walks you are responsible for finding your own way: we do not check that stragglers are keeping up. However, it is to be hoped that there will be some "cooperative navigation" today.
After the first mile or so the route follows the Beeches Way, which is supposedly waymarked, but how reliable this is, I do not know. The last quarter of the walk will be familiar to those who know the Gerrards Cross to Cookham walk in book one, but the rest is all new territory. Fairly wooded, it seems from the map.
We will be doing the shorter start to this walk from Langley (home of the CIA!) - see the red line on the map for this walk. Lunch options are the Black Horse in Fulmer after 4.3 miles and The Forresters (01753 643340) in Farnham Common after 7 miles - large and recommended, apparently. It may be worth phoning this latter pub before relying on it: emergency alternative pub options may be available in Stoke Poges, 1.5 miles earlier (ie after 5.5 miles), but these require a 1km diversion off the route.
Mid afternoon (2 miles after Farnham Common) you will pass one of the lunch pubs on the Gerrards Cross to Cookham walk - the Jolly Woodman in Littleworth Common - which might be a refreshment stop. Otherwise it is just over 3 miles more to Cookham, which has a tea room - the Teapot, open till 5pm - or three pubs.
Note that it is 1km from Cookham high street to its station: leave 15-20 minutes to do this walk
Trains back from Cookham are at 21 past the hour
** Possible MOONLIGHT walk: this is the last opportunity before the clocks go back to do a moonlight walk, with full moon due tomorrow night. If the skies are clear, some of us may do a walk along the Thames: either to Bourne End, getting the train back from there, or to Maidenhead, or perhaps taking the train to Marlow and walking back to Cookham. Anyone is welcome (at your own risk! If you get eaten by a werewolf, don't come running to us...) to join us.
T=3.189
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4 comments:
Yes. I would be up for a Moonlight Walk. And I want to end the Walk at Marlow on the day. That's providing if I make it on the day.
Another short cut option is 9.6 miles - lunch at Fulmer (4.3 miles) then walk till Farnham Common (7 miles - tea if desired), then from there, it is 2.6 mile walk to Burnham station. Buy a day return to Burnham.
N=17 on this walk, a nice saunter through an interesting mosaic of woodland, heath and stately home park, with pubs nicely scattered en route. Despite the lack of written directions, navigation was not an issue, enough people having GPX or phone map apps to make wayfinding easy (at least, as far as I am aware: if anyone got lost, do say).
The weather was w=white-cloud-with-sun-for-a-time. The sun actually broke through during lunch, which we had at a big table in the garden of the first possible pub, The Black Horse in Fulmer. The food here was tasty and came quickly, and personally I thought it a nicer place than the recommended lunch stop in Farnham Common. Many of us stopped for tea in that pub, which had a sumptuous rear veranda with sofas and hanging basket chairs - surely the best "smoko" in the country. However several of us were then peeved to find a nice open air cafe a few hundred metres beyond the village which would have been an even better tea stop. This and two other outside cafes (in Langley Park and by Black Park Lake) were not mentioned on the walk's home pages, an omission that will be rectified.
A good number of walkers decided to head south from this point to Burnham station to have a shorter walk. It would be interesting to hear how they got on. Seven of us ploughed on, eschewing a cute rural pub in Litttleworth Corner, to get to Cookham after 5.5 miles. It was by now cloudy and so after drinks and some deep fried acrylamide in The Crown, we set off for the station.
Two of us then noticed that despite cloudy skies at dusk the full moon was hazily but definitely visible and so we hastily set off for a moonlight walk, enjoying a peaceful and enchanting four mile stroll in the very mild - almost summery - night air along the river to Marlow. Sorry if anyone else would have liked to join us on this but it was very spur of the moment. Nice to get one more moonlight outing done before the clocks go forward and they become impractical on SWC walks.
6 after lunch headed off to Burnham station. This was a good short cut option, as it reduced walk to a more manageable 11-12 miles versus 13-14 miles or even longer moonlight walk. It should be mentioned if the walk comes up again.
We initially followed the same route as to Cookham, entered a large wooded park (also saw the cafe building in the park). We then went south followed a foot path along a stream to Druid's Oak - one of the best woodlands on this walk. Then on to Crow Piece Lane with fields on both sides and continued to the station. In fact, various routes could be followed including going through some woodlands but we decided to do the most direct route to the station. Everyone caught 4:54pm train from Burnham and two changed at Slough for a faster train back to London.
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