After a book about canal boats, back to the summer's canal walks and a non-canal canal-walk.
Key facts:
- Start: West Byfleet train station
- End: West Byfleet train station
- Distance: 10.9 km
This walk was amazingly picturesque and only short train journey from Clapham Junction to West Byfleet, the start and end point. While it could have been walked in this case I took the bike to make the getting to/from the Navigation easier.
The Wey Navigation goes all the way back to 1653 when the river was made navigable all the way from the Thames to Guildford. While going through Surrey, a county not know for wilderness, it feels remote and unspoilt and is an absolute gem.
Those that follow the TV series "Great Canal Journeys" in which husband and wife Timothy West and Prunella Scales explore the canal and rivers of Britain and Europe will recognise this parts of this from the Series 3 episode "London's Lost Route to the Sea".
That programme impressed me in its almost iconic representation of rural England, yet started on the Thames within the loop of the M25 - indeed I'd visited that end as part of the Ferries of London project.
And, golly, wasn't it just so pretty:
The segment I was exploring included the ruins of Newark Priory:
Yup, decided it was a good place to practice flying the drone:
What a place to have a boat to potter in, where Ratty and Mole could just messing about all day on the water:
These boaters, like so many I encountered, were heading off for a picnic: there was some sort of wedding going on in Windsor that day....
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