Day 5: Addlestone to West Drayton

Our penultimate walking day, led by yours truly, so you'll get the gory details (memory permitting!)

We left St George's the "back way", which allowed us to quickly reach Chertsey Meads and the bank of the Thames, our companion for much of the day.

Walking upstream, we used Chertsey Bridge to cross from one side of the river to the other (strangely enough, this road is called Thames Side; I wonder why?)

The older Chertsey Bridge contrasted with the modern M3 bridge over the river.

Following the river past some impressive riverside dwellings brought us to Staines. Before lunch, we stopped for prayer at St Peter's.

Then we walked through the town centre...

and over Staines Bridge with the lunch stop in sight, to the Swan Hotel.

Here we are about to set out in the afternoon's walk. Note that we had Day-Glo yellow arrows for this pilgrimage (we've used Day-Glo orange, green, yellow and pink, but the orange ones were clearly more visible and became the standard).

Still following the Thames upstream, we pass underneath the M25 / A30 on its huge double bridge (I think the M25 was open here)

On the far side of the motorway, we used this bridge to cross the river, then turned northwards. This is a land of reservoirs and gravel pits, and this stretch is most unusual: a river runs through the middle of a lake. Well, strictly there is a river with lakes on either side, separated by a narrow strip of land - the river bank. When I'd walked this a few weeks earlier, it had been quite clear, and used by anglers. But now we found that, in the close season for fishing but the open season for rapid growth, the path was mightily overgrown, mainly with nettles. Very lively nettles!

Sensible people were wearing strong protective trousers. We weren't, and it didn't occur to us to put on over-trousers. And as front markers we could hardly drop back until others had trampled the stingers. So we bravely strode on. When we reached the far end of the path, we had stings on stings on stings - despite the application of soothing creams by concerned fellow pilgrims, we could feel tingling for days!

Anyway, the path became clearer. We reached a railway line and followed alongside to a crossing. It may be little used, Hannah, but stopping on the crossing is NOT recommended!

We were now passing to the west of Heathrow airport, so we had good views (and sounds) of aircraft! It was also a strange area of odd industry, gravel pits, dumped rubbish, and quite countrified fields with horses and the like. Some just couldn't pass a pub by! (This one's in Poyle)

Another couple of miles brought us to St Mary's Harmondsworth, another country church now in the middle of the London suburbs.

After prayers, we crossed the M4

then through a residential area and park / playing fields to St Catherine's, West Drayton.