We resumed the walk last weekend. This first day was shorter because we only had a half day, having arrived in London that morning, so it was early afternoon by the time we got to Staines. We found the river a little fuller than on our more usual summertime walks.
The path from Staines mostly follows riverside properties - of all shapes and sizes - so was never truly rural. An information board at Dumsey Meadow, just below Chertsey Bridge, claims that it is the only unimproved meadow land on the Thames in Surrey, not exactly a huge record, but it was a small patch of nature with some distance from roads and buildings. Here and elsewhere, branches that had just started budding had been blown down from trees and strewn along the ground - the very recent effects of storm Katie.
Wildlife here seems very used to human contact, allowing us to approach closer.
Approaching Shepperton, the old towpath crossed the river at a point where we are supposed to take the ferry to the Weybridge side, one of few remaining operating ferries on the Thames. Because we were aiming to return via Shepperton station, our route took us on the alternative route of the path on the north bank.
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