Walking the Thames Path from Shiplake near Henley to Tilehurst near Reading.

A nice simple start today; step off the train at Shiplake station on the Henley branch line and you are on the Thames Path.

For some reason the Thames Path runs inland, rather than on the river bank, although the map suggests a riverside footpath exists.

Leaving the road, the path heads through a field to a lock with a slightly remote feeling. Boats were pasing through, with the topic of conversation being someone who has apparently been banned from taking his boat through a bridge after hitting it too many times.

The next few miles are a pleasent riverside walk, with boats to the left, fields to the right and red kites overhead.

The Thames Path passes through the riverside grounds of a school.

There was a surprising number of boats moored along this section of the river. And someone was playing the guitar on the opposite bank.

The attractive but traffic-clogged and suprisingly hard to photograph bridge at Sonning.

The pretty-and-they-know-it-is Grade II* listed timber-framed Bull Inn seems to be a compulsory stop when walking through Sonning. The church next door was open too.

Another busy lock, where someone asked me if I had seen her dog which had run on ahead of her.

Troll Bridge had a disappointing lack of Scandianvian creatures bothering goats or winding up people up on the internet.

A floating party on inflatables out on the river.

The town of Reading seems to avoid the River Thames.

Next come the bridges between Reading and Caversham. First is the imaginatively named Reading Bridge of 1923.

Next is Christchurch Bridge, opened in 2015.

And finally Caversham Bridge, opened in 1926 on the site an ancient bridge.

The path runs along Reading’s Thames Promenade, which was being used for a canoe competition.

Back into the countryside again, before the path runs along a narrow space between the river and the elevated route of the adjacent railway.

A footbridge leads over the railway, for a double-back to Tilehurst station and the end of today’s walk.

Walking the Thames Path from Marlow to Shiplake.

Walking the Thames Path from Maidenhead to Marlow.

A walk along the River Thames from Windsor to Maidenhand, on 12 May 2018.

Windsor was getting ready for the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel a week later.

The weather started to get a bit ropey. Maybe travelling by boat would have been a better option today.

Eton College’s (former?) Athens bathing area. Guidebooks flag this up as a point of interest, but it’s not that exciting; maybe it is more interesting for old Etonians.

A nice little church by the river.

Continuing along the leafy footpath.

An organised event seemed to be heading in the opposite direction.

That doesn’t look good.

A walk along the Thames Path from Weybridge to Windsor, on 7 April 2018.

This section of the path gets off to an exciting start, with the Shepperton ferry. My previous walk had ended short of the target when the river was too fast-flowing for the ferry to operate, but this time I phoned in advance to check that it was running.

A ferry service has operated here for around 500 years, albeit with a gap from the 1960s. It runs every 15 minutes, costs £2.50 single, and it only takes a few seconds.[3. Shepperton – Weybridge Pedestrian Ferry, Nauticalia Marine Services]

The Thames Path returns to dry land, and then follows one or other bank of the river for almost all of its route to Windsor.

It was a gloriously sunny May bank holiday Monday, and a lot of people were out on the river…

…or buying ice cream ashore.

There were lots of boats on the river, some with silly names.

Boats crusing along the river.

Dumsey Meadow is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and apparently the only undeveloped water meadow on the Thames downstream from Caversham.

Next comes Chertsey Bridge.

1783-85. Architect James Paine. The least altered of his Thames bridges. Five principal segmental arches centre widest, with flanking single flood arches in slight breaks. Drip over arches. Coursed and dressed rubble with band at base of ashlar parapet, cornice above. Cast-iron panels in parapet over spandrels and breakwaters (pointed in plan with round tops at springing of arches). Numerous tie rods. 1930s lamps.[1. Historic England]

A brief stop at the Kingfisher pub, then onwards to the somewhat less pretty M3 motorway bridge.

Boatyards always seem a lot more picturesque than other types of industrial sites.

A – well, what is it? – with the City of London arms.

A typical view along this stretch of the Thames.

Old boats often seem prettier than newer ones.

The lock keeper’s house at Penton Hook Lock.

Boats using sail power.

Plane, train and boats at Staines. Or Staines-upon-Thames as it now is. No-one mention Ali G.

A type 4d coal duty post next to the railway.

The Swanmaster statue, by Diana Thomson. Unveiled by the Mayor of Spelthorne on 4 November 2014.[2. Diana Thomson Sculptor]

A replica of the London Stone which once marked the limits of the City of London’s rights on the river. The original is now in the Spelthorne Museum.

The Thames Path crosses the river, and at the other end of the bridge there is another coal tax post, this time a type 2* with a correction plate

Passing under the M25 orbital motorway at Runnymede Bridge; the path finally leaves everything which might in some very informal sense be seen as “London”.

“…the memorable Charta, known as Magna Charter on account of the Latin Magna (great) and Charter (a Charter); this was the first of the famous Chartas and Gartas of the Realm and was invented by the Barons on a desert island and in the Thames called Ganymede”, as the book 1066 & All That put it.[1. 15 June 1215: A Significant Date in History, British Library, 15 June 2013]

“Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and thus a Good Thing for everyone (except the Common People)”.

Some queens.

That’s good to know.

Mind the gap.

Albert Bridge, I wonder what the next bridge will be called?

The Thames Path diverts away from the river briefly at Datchet.

And Windsor is reached. Had the Normans known where Heathrow airport was going to be, they might have rethought the location of the castle.