Muddy Maidenhead, Cookham and Cliveden Reach

Date: Sunday 19th February 2012
Route: Maidenhead to Cookham and back along the Thames Path
Distance: 5.5 miles

As previously noted, when a walk starts by going through a housing estate, it's not usually a good sign - and when a gravel works, a football pitch and a very muddy field filled with slightly whiffy brassicas are the next few things you encounter, your heart sinks. Luckily this walk redeems itself at the end, with a 1.5 mile section along the Thames.

The walk comes from the Pathfinder Chilterns & Thames Valley book (walk 7, Wildbrook Common and Cliveden Reach) and is all very flat. It starts from the car park at Boulter's Lock but only really starts getting interesting once you are a bit further away from civilsation, crossing the National Trust's Wildbrook Common, with views across the fields to Cliveden, the imposing house on the hillside that belonged to the Astors and was associated with the Profumo scandal.

There is a pretty section of path alongside Strand Water, then a covered path leads into the village of Cookham, home of Stanley Spencer and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. A lane leads away from the village and down to the Thames near Cliveden, then all the way back to the car park.