Tuesday 3 August 2010

A Riverside Walk

On Sunday we decided that no matter what, we would go for a long walk with the boys, we've hardly done this at all since Luda was here, and it seemed time to correct that. We parked up at Bourne End station and walked along the Thames Path to Cookham and then onto Maidenhead. Lara walked (well, trotted) the first mile to Cookham, where the path is through open fields along the riverside where we could keep a close eye on her, and she loved it, always trying to catch whomever (whoever?) was out in front. At Cookham we stopped for a picnic and took some photos, then Lara was happy to climb in the backpack carrier and we walked the next 4.5 miles along the Thames path to Maidenhead, and on to the railway station there. Lara napped for 30 minutes en route, but was really happy to be on the train, whilst the boys were just glad of a lie down. We took a quick detour once back in Bourne End to the Bounty pub, which is right on the river, for a quick refresher before going home for tea. The outing took five and a half hours and everyone really enjoyed it. It made a nice change to do a flat walk, as most of the longer walks near home involve hills. And Lara's not getting any lighter when she's in that carrier! She did make us laugh when we first set off from Bourne End car park, she was in the carrier for the first 5 minutes as it was raining lightly, and we had her waterproof cover over the carrier - she was pretending that she was in her domik and she was looking out of the windows. As soon as we crossed the river the rain stopped and the sun came out and the weather was lovely. Must be a Berkshire (South of the river) thing!
It's a real shame we can't let the boys off the lead on a walk like that, we saw so many other walkers with their dogs off-lead, but it's really not worth the hassle of trying to prevent them from running off and playing with every dog that comes along (or worse if it's a pretty lady-dog!). Mishka on his own might be OK, but Jackson is just too hyper and once he starts with other dogs, it just sets Mishka off too. Oh well, one day, when they're much older, we might be able to let them off....