Blog NO 11, Walk from Maidenhead to Marlow  8th July 25

This was a lovely walk accompanied by Adrian my son from California. He took charge of the phone map and led the way. It was quite straightforward although I had a wobbly when I realised we had missed the shortcut through Cookham village. I was concerned because it was hot and I was not wanting to go the extra mile that day. Adrian encouraged me saying the Thames Walk is on the Thames and not through the village. The first stretch was indeed lovely, seeing the rowing boats out and the lovely houses either side of the river. Soon after beginning the walk we came to the local wetland area





We hit the road  the far end of Cookham, went through the churchyard and onto the path again. It was shady and a breeze, people around enjoying walking and boating.



Adrian and I chatted about Elizabeth which was good and easy with him. The loss for us both is all too apparent.  We talked about his plans for his own future, cutting working hours and planning to buy a family house which will comfortably accommodate his two boys instead of his lovely Batchelor pad where he has been very happy looking out onto the mountains. I am pleased that he is enjoying life and has so many interests. He is going on a diving course in Honduras soon, which he is keen to do. Adrian is also an excellent bread maker with  his friends queuing for his loaves whilst he is here. 

Adrian's marathon running is a bit of a worry for me as there is evidence that extreme sport can trigger MND. My own genetic counselling appointment has not yet come through which will tell me if the gene that caused MND for Elizabeth is embedded in my family line. We chatted about Adrian's boys, my grandsons, their different personalities, their plans for the future, life goes on. 

We continued the walk with a cool breeze especially welcome over the open space running alongside the river until we came to the  bridge we needed to cross. Thankfully Adrian was in charge of the map otherwise we would have been on the wrong side of the river upon reaching Marlow. However not all would have been lost as we were close to Marlow bridge and could have crossed  to reach Jen and the car.


Having crossed to the other side we walked through more meadowland but with more shade and also benches along the way. We stopped a couple of times for a drink, jelly babies and nuts to keep us going.

We reached our finishing point in good time, much to my surprise and relief. It was not as far as I had expected to walk, so much for my estimations, and with grateful thanks to Adrian.  


Our next walk is Marlow to Henley, 8 and a half miles, the weather is predicted to be hot for the next few days but will try to let people know in good time when we will again be on the Path.  The starting point will be Marlow Bridge to Henley Bridge.

Elizabeth's Just Giving page has now recorded a donation total  of over £4000. Thanks to friends and family and unknown persons who have made this happen.

Comments

  1. Graham Druce16 July 2025 at 00:56

    Well done, glad to see you are making progress! Enjoy your next walk, graham

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  Maureen's Walk for MND Elizabeth is my daughter who sadly died last May with MND. She was a great walker and lived in London close to the Thames. She liked nothing more than walking the local area with her dog Olive. To pay tribute to Elizabeth’s life I am intending to walk the Thames Path from the Barrier to the source accompanied by friends along the way. I am hoping to raise £3000 pounds for MND research and also to contribute to the MND Association to help local branches who offer advice and support to people living with MND. I intend to walk two days a week starting on 30th April and hope to have completed my walk by 30th August 2025, I will follow the sections advised in the Thames Path Walk book, hopefully achieving approximately 20 miles per week. I will log my progress, and post an update weekly on my Just Giving page, to let people know where I am, inviting walkers to join me in support of MND. I will also alert walkers to the sections that are wheelchair friendly and a...
Read more
Image
Blog No 3. Hi everyone, I managed to walk from London Bridge to Putney last Friday. I learnt a few lessons along the way which I will tell you about later.    First of all it was a sunny day with a cool breeze so not as hot as the first week. What is more important is that I had company. Elizabeth's close friends Dominic and Juli joined me at the Golden Hinde and we walked together to the Covid Memorial Wall just past Westminster Bridge. More of this later. My skills of photography are sadly lacking and so Tower Bridge still does not feature particularly well in my collection. Fortunately Juli took pictures for the part of the walk accompanying me.  We passed the Globe Theatre, where Dominic and Elizabeth saw Andrew Logan's Alternative Miss World 2018.     I remember Elizabeth saying we should go and see a Shakespeare production but we did not get around to doing it. Looking across the river Dominic pointed out St Brides Church which has a tiered tower and ...
Read more
Image
Hello everyone, I began the walk on Wednesday,30th of April, it was the hottest day of the year. I travelled from Oxford to Paddington, on to the Elizabeth line and got off  at Woolwich and walked to the Woolwich footbridge.      I am not at all familiar with this part of London and was impressed with the space, the signing for Thames Path and just how clean, litter free and how well maintained the whole of the area right the way through to the Thames Barrier.   From the Thames Barrier I made my way to the O2 Arena but did not manage to get a good picture of it, worried also I would run out of battery before getting home. Seeing 02 Arena reminded me of all the gigs Elizabeth managed to get ‘door passes’ for me to see her playing her saxophone for all different pop groups. One I remember at the Camden Garage a punk group absolutely packed. Often found myself at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, notably the early days of Primal Scream. Elizabeth managed to get me...
Read more