I didn't make it to this watery walk but Julia, one of our newer members who is also a keen photographer, was there and has written up the walk for us.
On Saturday 8th February five intrepid walkers, including a first timer with the group, turned up for this walk, despite an uncertain weather forecast and that the planned meeting point (Cookham Moor Car Park) was under floodwater!
Luckily we managed to find our walk leaders Mark and Julie on the foot road that leads to Cookham High Street and set off on a slightly modified start to the route. This led us alongside flooded meadows with the Thames itself and the Thames path indistinguishable such was the expanse of water in places.
The paths we followed were remarkably walkable despite some inevitable mud and views towards the river were superb. We soon joined the planned route and progressed up towards Winter Hill, traversing part of the Golf Course before heading into attractive woodland.
Here we spent an enjoyable lunch stop sat on little wooden ‘seats’ made from a tree trunk with sun streaming through the trees on to our backs. We then progressed through the woods and across muddy fields towards Cookham Dean encountering a few minutes of hail and rain along the way.
Fortunately we soon arrived at the Jolly Farmer Inn - a delightful cottage style 18th Century building - where we stopped for some well-earned refreshment. We then stepped back out to fine weather once more and completed the last leg of this enjoyable walk back through the Winter Hill golf course to our finish at Cookham.
Some people who attended that walk have told me what a lovely walk it was and how it would be really nice to repeat it (taking the originally planned route) once the Thames has returned to normal.
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