Walk Report

WWW - Windsor Winter Wander, Saturday 23rd January 2010
32 walkers, 20.5 miles - leader Jerome Ripp
The real title of this walk should have been "LDWA takes over Windsor" as 32 of us gathered from all corners: visitors from Thames Valley group, Essex and Herts group, some new faces, some regulars and possibly even some gatecrashers. If this carries on we will need bouncers. A rather grey but fairly mild and dry day with only small areas of mud and most of the walk was on fairly easy tracks or grass. The morning circuit took us North West along the Thames passing a wooden "friendless church" and a visit to Dorney Lake recently built by Eton College and the venue for the rowing events in the 2012 Olympics. A sweep round the Thames and then inland passing the medieval pile of Dorney Court where the first pineapple in England was grown and soon after passing the aptly named Pineapple pub. Then along the recently created Jubilee river, a flood defence system for Windsor and now a bird sanctuary. Pretty soon the castle beckoned us and we were back in Windsor and Eton for the first circuit in our figure of eight. It says a lot for the discipline and organisation of the leader that this large motley crew was rounded up, after lunch in various local hostelries and cafes, in just one hour. On through Eton College and its playing fields and then the Thames path south via Datchet to Old Windsor. Finally we found some contour lines as we marched into Windsor Great Park and did a wide loop round to our group photo by the statue of King George on Snow Hill. The castle seems just ahead but it is a mirage as it is nearly 3 more miles to the end. We all made it and the train having covered 32.9 km at an average pace of 5 km per hour according to a metric enthusiast with GPS.

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