Time Out Country Walk #24: Cookham (Round Walk)
japra | Sep 29, 2008 | Comments 14
Ah, a photo-heavy post. You’ll excuse me while I indulge in one. You see, I haven’t posted a lot of photos lately as I’ve been a little burned out with my camera. But this beautiful walk deserves these photos. I took 223 pictures yesterday and narrowed down my selection quite a bit as you can see!
This is the Cookham round walk in Berkshire . Here’s the link to the Saturday Walker’s Club page on this walk. We actually trimmed the Bisham leg out because we got a little bit of a late start and didn’t want to get caught in the English countryside after dark! As it was, I think we went about six and a half or seven miles in three and a half hours. This is a very easy country ramble through farms and woods and then a nice little stretch along the Thames. This is also a fun walk for kids since you can see horses, cows, bunnies, and free-range turkeys.
As you can see, we weren’t the only ones enjoying the beautiful weekend.
Trudy found a friend. That’s Roxi’s arm, by the way.
This fellow was so friendly!
So much of this countryside looked like this. This is a village green near Cookham Dean.
By the way, if you’ve lost a cap near there, it’s on top of the footpath post near Inn on the Green.
We walked through a variety of kissing gates and stiles.
These are free-range turkeys! They were very friendly and gathered near the fence when we walked by. They were not scared of Trudy.
Those round topped structures provide shade (and I’m not sure what else) for the turkeys. The little black dots in the photo are turkeys. I was surprised how chirpy they sound.
This kissing gate swings open to let you into the round section. You swing it the other way to leave.
The Quarry Wood was my favorite part of the walk. Um, ONE of my favorites.
Isn’t this MG lovely? I could picture Mr. Toad slipping into the driver’s seat to take her for a spin. Poop-poop! This was on top of Winter Hill. Not too far from here is Kenneth Grahame’s house. We didn’t try to look for it though because we weren’t sure how much further we had to walk before nightfall.
Another stile.
Such a beautiful thatched roof. I wonder if they are hard to maintain.
These cows were in our path (or more likely we were in THEIR path). If you look closely at the black cow in the middle, you can see our footpath marker.
Cows are really big, by the way.
Ah, that’s better. Now we’re in the river portion of our walk. There were many boats on the river Sunday. Lots of close calls with the sailboats. I thought a couple of them were going to turn over or crash, but the sailors were very good! It was interesting to watch. The river isn’t very wide here, by the way–maybe as wide as a 10-lane freeway with some places a little wider than that.
It was perfect boating weather.
This one looked nice and cosy. The sailboats were pretty, but they looked like too much work for
simply messing about.
simply messing about.
I’ll take this house, but a smaller boat, please.
These cute bunnies were in someone’s back garden. Uninvited, I’m sure.
This is the Holy Trinity Church in Cookham. There were grave markers here from the early 1800s.
Roxi and Mr. DJ had fish and chips and I had the roast chicken.
It was a most satisfying way to end our walk.
Other long walks we’ve done: Runnymede/Magna Carta Walk, Time Out Walk #49: Box Hill to Leatherhead, Time Out Walk #18: Sunningdale to Windsor, and Time Out Walk #14 Gomshall to Guildford.
Filed Under: Blog • Outdoors • What to Do
About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in England with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 17-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
What an amazing walk! Wish I were close enough to give it a go.
Love the pictures and don’t apologize for photo-ladden posts. I love them!
This was so much more scenic than the walk that Sigmund and I took!
I want to live in Cookham!
Your “commentaries” make me smile.
What a lovely place and a wonderful tour ! I walked it with you. Thank you
The kissing gates and stiles are so romantic and pictures are worth a thousand words.
Alyson–I feel the same about your walks :-)
Bee–I am certain your walk was beautiful too. I have an expat Texan friend who lives in Marlow, about five miles from Cookham. She says it’s so pretty there.
Barbara–I thought of your outing with your friends as I watched everyone sail by on the Thames.
Christine–I can’t help but think of all the English period movies I’ve seen as I walk through this beautiful countryside. You should have seen me when I saw my first stile last year. Giddy! What a nerd, huh?
Truly beautiful – I wish there was this kind of thing in Texas. you are so lucky. Trudy, as usual, is the star! What a darling dog!
Joni
What a lovely walk! Thanks for taking us along. I can’t believe all this sunny weather after we leave England. It rained all weekend here. It was nice to get some virtual sunshine. If only I could share the pint too.
Beautiful!!!
Joni–I was just talking to Mr. DJ about this very thing this morning. There are some nice walks in the Hill Country, and we’ve done some other walks in Big Bend and in the Sam Houston National Forest, but a country ramble in the English Countryside is unique, I think. There is a sense of softness, history, and yes, romance.
Sarah–Happiness is the pub at the end of a long walk! Thank you for sharing your Maine sunshine. I’ve enjoyed the beautiful blues in your photos.
Laurie–Thank you! We enjoyed it very much.
Lovely, Lovely Walk! I especially liked the woodland part! And the cow looks like she was in the middle of telling you something. Lunch looked good, too!
And, so that’s where I left my cap!
How English everything looks (surprisingly 8-))! Great photos.
Pamela–The old girl was telling me she really wasn’t into the “herd mentality” ;-)
Kathy–Hahahahhaha! But you are right, it did look very “English”.
I love those thatch and wattle roofs! I guess they hold up well; there are so many of them. Of course, it’s too humid in this part of Texas, and it would attract lots of icky bugs. Thanks for sharing your lovely walk! xoxMM
Mimsy–Don’t forget the mold–blech. And they wouldn’t be very hurricane-proof!