Cloudy, chill breeze, little rain. 15.9 miles.
It didn’t take many minutes to get from the station and onto the river bank in a fine park with an avenue of London plane trees (seemed to capture a couple of local walkers in the photo).
What caught my attention was a black old/dead fungus which i fancy was a not often seen Inonotus hispidus, not often seen as they tend to grow high in Ash trees and only get noticed when they fall to the ground in spring, a search upwards went some way to confirming my suspicion.
Never seen them on London plane before but then don’t get to see London plane trees all that often (the tree is a curious accidental cross breed of two maple species which is a tale in itself). Back to the trail, yep it’s fine there are plenty of fine buildings to ogle, the path soon passes eel island and then has ham house on one side of the river while opposite is marble hill, both well out of my price range. The river is home to so many fine boats and the lightweight rowing for speed type are housed in some fine buildings evenly spaced along todays path, this one was an eye catching example.
A bit further along and i’m passing the old dear park which i didn’t know is home to an old observatory and this apparently is the site of the first meridian line (time starts here, or it did) until a newer observatory at Greenwich took over the role. There is a marker post lined up with a obelisk and the observatory making this piece of history and i gained another poor photo award.
The old dear park is adjoining the royal botanic gardens, the path gives a fine view down one of the tree lined avenues to a large glass house (that photo is to bad to post) and again some fine buildings that are home to various scientific collections. continuing on finally brings one to the Kew bridge which seems an impressive structure spanning the ever widening Thames.
It seemed an equally fine place to stop for sandwiches which i’d hardly finished and the sky decided to turn damp, luck prevailed as this didn’t last long. Now while plodding onward comes one of the great parts of hiking, what surprise may hove into view, there sure had been plenty to see but not on the expected list was a milking cow beside the trail.
Then i passed a house displaying a plague informing me that a ballerina had lived there, this was followed by another where apparently Holst the composer had lived.
As if this wasn’t enough i then notice my progress was being observed by a space man.
Bridges have featured a lot on the Thames path, and impressive they are in design, then i came to the most impressive so far, Hammersmith bridge really is just something to marvel at.
The path had stuck to river like a limpet to here and onward, nearing Putney bridge one can see and hear Fulham football stadium on the opposite bank. I passed Putney bridge and on nearing Wandsworth the path has to divert amongst some building developments where a handy sandwich wagon was spotted (time for a rest). The path meanders sometimes on the river bank and some times amongst houses, the only tricky road crossing is by Wandsworth bridge and its soon back into a fine park with London plane trees along the river bank just as the day started. A short distance after that i turned away from the river to find the railway station for home.
The path never became overly busy with people , there is a huge amount to see, at any time one can look up at big airliners but their noise wasn’t as bad as expected.
Platanus × acerifolia, the London plane, London planetree, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus Platanus. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of Platanus orientalis (oriental plane) and the Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore). Some authorities think that it may be a cultivar of P. orientalis. {from Wikepedia}
