Blog No 25, Bablock Hythe to Newbridge, Wed 20th August '25   3 1/2 miles

I decided to complete this stretch walking later afternoon instead of a morning, hoping that friends and neighbours from my village would be able to join me at a more convenient time as the route was close by. 

Well, what a surprise. On my arrival at Bablock Hythe a group of friends and neighbours were waiting for me. Some to see me off and others to enjoy the walk. My friend and publicity manager Alison had organised a fun send off with balloons, waving, clapping and cheering us walkers along the way.

Setting off



When I got over the surprise and we started walking, the group numbered 6 of us plus Trevor the dog,  It was still quite warm at that time of day, but pleasant enough to walk. We tended to spread out and walk in pairs which kept changing as we came to gates and narrow paths before stretching into the fields just below the village.

A mile down the path, we came to Northmoor Lock and had our first sit down.

g
Following our brief rest we were on our feet. Through the gate and onto the fields where we were able to spread out over the meadowland and soon came to James's cows. 


It was a beautiful early evening and starting to chill a little. but we were now off the fields and walking the narrow path just south of the Rose Revived Pub at Newbridge.


Then as we neared the pub grounds, I was greeted with the second big surprise of the evening. A whole group of friends and neighbours had gathered to see our group complete the walk. It was a real carnival atmosphere with balloons and cheers yet again.


It was a lovely surprise and very humbling to realise that so many people cared about the walk I was doing for Elizabeth. That people would make such an effort and that Alison would take the trouble to organise such an event. I am not complacent about completing the whole of the Thames Path walk but I know that I am spurred on every step of the way. About another 35 miles to go.

A huge thank you to everybody.

Next stretch, Newbridge to Tadpole Bridge, six miles Thursday 21st of August '25.



Comments

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