Length: 22km (13.7 miles) **
Toughness: 3 out of 10: I don't remember a lot of hills...
9.27 train from Paddington (9.35 Ealing Broadway) to Langley, arriving 9.52
Buy a day return to Cookham.
For more details of the walk click here. For GPX click here.
This subset of the West Drayton to Cookham walk was done with great success in March 2017 and passes through lovely territory mixing fine beech woods with more open sections. If there is still autumn leaf colour, this ought to be a good place to see it.
I realise that even this shortened version is still quite a long walk for a short day, but we are going to be making an early start and there is a slightly more than half moon today, which would illuminate the final stages a bit if the night is clear. (If the night is really clear some of us may even do a further moonlight walk along the Thames from Cookham).
Further detracting from its charms for some of you, it is another map-led walk, meaning you will be relying on the GPX file or being very nice to someone who has downloaded it or printing off the map on our website or using Explorer map 172. However, you are also on the waymarked Beeches Way for much of the route and last time we found the route fairly easy to follow. For the last three miles you are on the route of the book 1 Gerrard's Cross to Cookham walk.
You start by following the red route on the GPX up from Langley station, which soon joins the main green route.
There are lots of refreshment options. Just a mile or two into the walk, between Langley Park and Fulmer, there is a large cafe overlooking a lake, while in Fulmer there is a nice pub (where we ate last time) with another a little further on in Farnham Common. Farnham Common also has a Costa Coffee and two supermarkets and just beyond it there was a cafe in a forest-edge car park last time we did the walk. Later in the walk the Blackwood Arms in Littleworth Common might make a drinks stop, but you will probably want to push on at this stage to Cookham, which has three pubs and a Costa Coffee just beyond the station level crossing, open till 6.30pm
Trains back from Cookham are at 21 past the hour
** A shorter ending is possible to Burnham station, which several walkers did on the last outing, though this really is map-led: ie you have to work out your own route on the map, cutting south through the woods after Farnham Common and then follow Crow Piece Lane. Looking at the map this does not really look much shorter anyway. T=3.189
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8 comments:
is this walk 13.7 miles if no short cut taken?
OK, just checked on the GPX. Yes it is.
Hi Guys looking forward to this walk and a good distance as well. Hope to see some of you at Paddington train station for 09.27 train. Weather dry and sunny too.
Monica
Just realized that this walk has a high degree of road walking and since I often struggle with road walking decided to miss this walk. Enjoy the walk those who is going.
Monica
Just FYI, Monica: there was hardly any road walking.
N=22 on this walk on w=a-glorious-sunny-day. Despite it being 12.8 miles to Cookham (13.7 to the station) we arrived there in daylight, as the sun was setting, without undue rushing. The reason, I think, is that this is a largely level walk, often on tracks or broad paths, and with no stiles whatsoever.
Easy walking, in other words, and delightful scenery throughout, perfectly suited for autumn - beech woods, some heath, a few fields, a couple of pleasant villages. Some stopped to lunch in Farnham Common, but a good number of us carried on to the “perhaps too late for lunch” Blackwood Arms on Littleworth Common, which we reached at 1.30pm. It was full inside but we got seats on the covered patio (which had heaters, but the thick rugs provided proved handy too). The food was a bit slow in coming but I think this is because we arrived just after a number of other tables had ordered. The staff were friendly and the kitchen (visible through an open door) was a hive of activity. A couple of the Gerrards Cross to Cookham walkers were at the bar.
Autumn colour throughout the walk was wonderful - a riot of golds - but we are really down to the dribs and drabs phase, with many trees bare and others looking thin. In the golden afternoon sunlight it all looked lovely, however.
In Cookham several went to the King’s Arms and fraternised with some Gerrards Cross walkers and five of us had tea at the Teapot Tea Room. Eight of us then had a lovely night walk along the Thames to Marlow - four miles under the stars, with a slightly more than half full moon providing perfectly adequate illumination. After a brief drink and some gooey “sharing plates” at the Marlow Donkey we caught the 20.15 home.
Hi Walker glad you all had a great time. I read on past comment that this walk has a lot of road walking and thus I decided to skip it next time I know better should this walk present itself again. Bad day for me my alternative to Ashurst was cancelled as Southern trains as usual no trains. Too late to switch to any walk thus content myself in the gym. Anyone attending Tring walk tomorrow otherwise I will be going solo.
Monica.
For the record, Foresters at Farnham serves gourmet food, I would rank it amoungst top three pubs on our walks and well worth a try next time. At least one walker took bus at Farnham to Slough.
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