Thames Path & Kew

Not a terribly exciting entry but one we want to document for ourselves. We planned to go down to Kew Gardens which is only about a 12-minute bus ride away. The gardens are quite large and stay open throughout the seasons. Inside the gardens is Kew Palace and Wakehurst Place, but Kew Palace is a separate entry fee. Well, we arrived at the gardens and realized it would’ve cost us £26 for admittance and we weren’t quite ready to spend that amount for half a day. What to do? Luckily, we were near the Thames and decided to walk it a few miles from Kew down to Richmond. Luckily, the bus we rode down to Kew also goes to Richmond so we could just hop on once we were finished. It was a windy, overcast day to walk down the Thames, but enjoyable nonetheless. There were hardly any people out and we were able to cache along the way. Not far down the path from Kew we took in the cheap view of Kew Palace. We were walking the Thames Path, a National Way, which eventually ends about 100 miles away. Halfway through the walk we came to an odd stainless steel pillar alongside the path. It turns out it was the Prime Meridian! The monument had a slit in it that if looked through allows you to follow the path of the meridian to the horizon. A cache was there! About a mile away from Richmond the sun started to poke out illuminating parts of Twickenham as we approached. We finally came into Richmond and walked by this tiny tucked away pub near the river. We didn’t stop. The path up from the river took us by the death place of Elizabeth I and up past the “village” green. We ended up stopping at The Orange Tree to check out a geocaching event, but decided against making ourselves known to the attendees. We had a pint and watched them for a while instead. We decided we would go to the National Archives next time we were in the area because it is on the other side of Kew opposite where we started on the Thames Path. I can easily see completing the Thames Path as a great experience in late summer and early fall… although the Pennine Way is calling.