Walk London from one edge to the other in a day
You start under oaks older than the city's street plan, deer watching you leave through Richmond Park's Ham Gate at first light. By Putney the path turns to embankment and then towpath, and somewhere past Wandsworth it stops being scenery and becomes just distance. The Thames doesn't stay picturesque for thirty miles; it goes industrial there and stays that way, oddly, past the Dome. You'll pass a man fishing off Battersea and, six hours later, a man fishing off Charlton, and wonder if it's the same river doing different jobs. What you remember afterwards is the exact moment your feet stopped being feet and became a separate problem.
Practical
- Cost
- $0–20
- Best time
- Spring or autumn, for long daylight hours without summer heat
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Time it takes
- 9–11 hours of walking, best started at dawn
- What people get wrong
- People underestimate thirty miles because it's flat and paved; blisters and knee pain end most attempts by mile twenty. Starting late is the other common error — daylight runs out well before the legs do.
- With
- Alone