An Outing to Thorpe Park

Well .. to the outside at least.   I set off on an afternoon that could have been summer, to find the mythical footpath to Thorpe.   I'd never been there, having read enviously about several B rides that went that way.   Hard work against the wind to Chertsey, and then down Willow Walk, a little lane I remember from my early days with the Wayfarers, narrowly missing Chertsey Abbey, which I will have to go back and explore at a future date.  Past some delightful houses, and then onto the track over the M3, which was ridiculously well signposted, but not in a good way.

There was a lake to get past: my careful research told me "keep to the left" which was a mistake.  The path was churned up by horses hooves and then sun-baked.   Emerging the other side, I found a nice track had gone round the other way.   Then my research told me "stay near the M3 to get under the Staines Road".   Unfortunately the version of OpenCycleMap I was using must have been rather out of date, as it then led me on a narrow path through nettles to the rusty skeleton of a bridge over a stagnant sort of moat.  On foot I might have tried it, but there was no base to the bridge, just holes between the iron framework, so I retreated, prepared for a return to Chertsey.

Luckily there was another way round, and I found myself on a delightful, if shady, path along the perimeter of Thorpe Park, with intermittent views of trains, old Wild Water rubber rings, and some of the roller-coasters towering overhead.

Thorpe's a pretty village to emerge in, and so I meandered down what I thought was a dead-end road leading to the river, only to find myself on the main road between Chertsey and Staines again, across the river from Staines.

With the wind behind me, I trundled home across Shortwood Common, the change of nature's alphabet well under way as crocuses and camellias have given way to hawthorn and horse chestnut blossom.  Returning through Ashford, I was very impressed by the show of support for the NHS that the shopkeepers have organised there.

 A nice day to be out.