Walton - 30 Sep

It's many, many years since I've been to the Camping Club Site at Walton and all I can remember about it was that it was very basic, in a fairly dowdy area and it was next to a river overlooking a sewage farm. Guess what - it's in a very dowdy area and next to a river overlooking a sewage farm! That said, the pitches and grass and very well kept and, with the weather being incredibly hot, it wasn't too bad.

Once again, I drove down early on Friday to avoid the worst of the M25 and followed the directions to the site taken from the CCC website. All went well until somehow I ended up in Hounslow mid mosque chucking out time. I then had to follow my nose to navigate this very large bus through a very busy and narrow area of London, eventually finding Twickenham, Fulwell, Hampton Bridge and then the camp site. Oh for a decent GPS! 

On arrival it was drive up, fill with water, plug in, awning out, lounger out and cold beer in hand in a matter of minutes. It's a tough life.



Lounger, sunshine & Beer!

Waiting for Debs at Hersham Station, I bumped into Bob Hiller who told me that Esher were playing London Welsh just along the road that evening.  After meeting Debs, we had a quick look at the ground and decided that £17 each for a 1st division game was a bit steep and we would just head off to the bus for beer and a lovely evening sitting outside watching the flocks of parakeets that swarm around that site in the mornings and evenings.

Saturday was an early start to watch a terrible England team beat an even worse Scotch team then, in 29 degrees of heat, we decided to walk the 2.5 miles to Hampton Court, grab some lunch and then catch a bus to the Stoop to watch our brave Harlequin boys beat Sale Sharks. The first mile was across a nature reserve, then through some pretty rough looking housing estates before the environs improved as we approached Hampton Bridge. We crossed the river, admired the palace and then headed to the Cardinal Wolsey pub, only to find it closed. We carries on walking to the Bell Inn in Hampton for a well deserved pint. The menu, however, was very expensive and it wasn't a particularly welcoming pub, so we kept walking, eventually stopping at an excellent pub in Fulwell that sold Twickenham Ales and had a very nice meal in there. Having walked this far, it seemed a shame to catch a bus, so we walked the rest of the way to the Stoop to watch our boys beat Sale 48-41.

After such along walk, after the game it seemed sensible to get the bus back to Walton and, having eventually found the correct bus stop, we successfully navigated our way back across the nature reserve and through the woods (in the pitch dark) to find the site. A 10 mile walk in all that heat was pretty good going we thought!

Sunday I was up early and went to get a paper. After walking about two miles through the chavvy estates I eventually found somewhere where I could buy the Times. A gentle morning was spent reading the paper and soaking up the late summer sun  before heading back home.

Thoughts on Walton?  Hmm - not a bad site, but the local area is not too good. Don't think we will be going back.



That Times Crossword can be a challenge sometimes


Things we need - A GPS!!!