Bank holiday weekend approached and for months our plans involved going to Hastings to watch the Green Man festival. However a couple of weeks beforehand we realised we’d need to change this – Lydia had an important rehearsal to run on Monday night and the main feature of the green man festival didn’t finish until 4pm on Monday – Hastings to Norfolk wasn’t achievable without us leaving early which we didn’t want to have to do.

So a new plan was formulated- to chip away some more at the Thames path, which we started in January.

We were very reluctant to stay at either of the club sites though that we normally stay at due to a price hike up to £50pn with it being bank holiday. So I was forced to look elsewhere and couldn’t believe I’ve my eyes when I saw a CL within the M25 for us.

Willow tree farm is a small certified location affiliated with the Caravan and Motorhome club. It’s in leafy Surrey in a small area called Horsham, and happily is outside the ULEZ zone.

It has no facilities other than electricity, water and waste disposal, but offered some peace and tranquillity on what is considered a busy weekend for camping. At £25 pn we were happy with the site and its facilities given its proximity to London.

The grass pitches caused some concern for both us and the owner of the site, but after a bit of negotiation, we agreed rather than pitch in the storage area on hard standing that we’d hug the very edge of the grass. As we were the only ones on site this was acceptable for us all.

Friday night was spent chilling. It had been a mad busy week – when isn’t it! – and our journey had been unpleasant through monsoon style rain and on the m25 car park around Heathrow on bank holiday Friday. Happily, the rain stopped on arrival though and we were able to cook our Friday night curry on the cadac outside and enjoy some downtime listening to the birds and the planes above as they left Heathrow.

Saturday dawned with beautiful blue skies and we were thrilled to see them. Our plan was to reconnect with the Thames path, where we had left off at Battersea Power station. This was fiddly to get to – although possible via 3/4 buses and trains, but in the end we decided to grab an Uber for just £33, plead with him to allow Jazz on our knee, and by 11am we were at Battersea Power station getting our obligatory pre walk picture.

The walk from Battersea took in trendy apartments and workspaces, the prestigious Battersea helipad and then began making way for leafier suburbs and green spaces, rowing clubs, larger houses and converted warehouses. We enjoyed a number of refreshment stops along the way and especially enjoyed seeing iconic buildings such as the Harrods village which is now converted into apartments and the old Budweiser brewery too.

A notable ‘pit stop’ was the Ship Inn at Mosley, which is the official end of the Cambridge and Oxford boatrace.

By the time we’d reached Kew Bridge, we had walked 11.6 miles, which we considered enough for the day, and made our way to the campsite via two buses, the 65 to Kingston and then the 481. Amazingly despite a dodgy forecast, the weather was great still and we managed a cheeky bbq back at the van which was great.

Our Joolca shower system worked a treat, providing us with instant hot water with great pressure. That’s been a great bit of kit for us.

Sunday morning arrived again with lovely blue skies. We wasted no time- the forecast wasn’t so good for the afternoon so we left site at 9.30- early for us! And arrived to Kew Bridge just after 11 for section 2.

We enjoyed the stretch from Kew Bridge to Kingston upon Thames. Again the Thames was wider, and the sides were much greener. The first 3 miles we bordered Kew Gardens and we passed Syom House, the London home of the Duke of Northumberland, and also Ham Palace, on our list to visit in the future.

Richmond was a real highlight. It had a great vibe and we thoroughly enjoyed our stop at the White Cross on the riverbank.

The route continued through green meadows, it was unbelievable to consider how close we were to central London

On arrival to Kingston, we had a celebration drink, picked up a few bits for dinner and made our way back to the site, this transfer being much easier with only one bus to catch- despite it running 40 mins late.

Dinner was a delicious carbonara and we enjoyed a very big chill after walking over 20 miles in two days.

The weather turned on the morning of our departure but we got off the pitch with no drama or skid marks and made our way to the Angler at Walton on Thames for lunch with Keith’s Dad and stepmum. This lovely riverside pub will be our end point for the next stretch, we aren’t sure when that will be yet, but hopefully it won’t be too far in the future. The pub was lovely and super dog friendly, so we will look forward to revisiting soon!

Hope you all had a lovely bank holiday. Where did you go if you were away?

Not long until our next trip, until next time

Lx