Afternoon walk from Bray

This afternoon David and I had a walk from Bray. We parked near Bray lake which is one of the few places locally that you can park free of charge. It was relatively quiet today.

The weather has been weird today. After the hot, hot, hot of yesterday where we stayed outside with friends in our garden drinking (too much) wine until late, it was still very hot and close this morning when I walked to the post office and the local convenience store to collect a parcel. Then it rained a little, sporadic big spots of rain, and then as we set off on our walk it was quite chilly. Cloudy with a breeze.

We walked over the footbridge from the Bray lake side of the river across to the Dorney lake side. We followed the path to Dorney rowing lake (owned by Eton College) which looked quite different from the last time we did this. You can no longer take a shortcut over the bank to the rowing lake, but there are nice areas of wild grasses with a mown path in the middle of these areas. When we reached the end of the path at the entrance to the rowing lake there was security on the gate and we could go no further. Cars were entering for some sort of event. The sign said no public access from April to September, so looks like we’ll be back in the autumn.

Everything looked very lush and green. Nature at its finest.

Does anyone know what this purple flower below is called? There were a bunch of them.

One of the tourist boats passing under Bray footbridge, actually this is called Summerleaze footbridge.

See what I mean about the murky weather? There weren’t many other walkers, but quite a few cyclists on the towpath on the Dorney side of the river. Dorney lake is where they held the rowing and canoeing events for the 2012 Olympic Games. I worked as a volunteer (Gamesmaker) at the rowing and canoeing athletes’ village about 10 miles away in Egham.

This is Bray marina below. There is a restaurant there called Mediterraneum that’s quite nice. The al fresco dining setting is beautiful. There were quite a few tables of diners today. David and I may have dinner here before the summer is over, if we get another warm, sunny evening. You never know with the British summer.

The majestic River Thames. We walked a bit along the towpath on the Dorney side towards Bray village/Maidenhead. I will be walking along here next month with my sister and nephew. They are planning on walking the WHOLE Thames path. I’m going to join them for the Windsor days, or maybe just parts of them as each section is about 14 miles long and that seems a very long walk to me! The river here had just been churned up by a boat full of blokes drinking beer with music. Looked like they were enjoying themselves.

We saw some beehives on the other side.

Then a stag beetle on the tow path. There was also one flying over our garden last night.

I think at one point these were quite rare, although I saw many as a child walking home from school. The population is obviously quite healthy now. I’m generally not a fan of creepy crawlies and beetles, but they are part of our ecosystem and deserve respect (trying to convince myself a little here). He/she is quite beautiful and shiny.

Lastly, here is the path back to the car. I did enjoy the change of scene and all the abundant greenery. I hope you enjoyed the photo tour too 😊😊? X