Trailblazer Guide Book : Thames Path

Are you looking at running our Thames Path 100 or our Autumn 100?  Getting out on some recce runs? Then this book by Trailblazer will be an invaluable companion to you.  Get out there and test your kit while exploring this fabulous route before race day.  

For the Thames Path 100, we start from Richmond out of London heading up as far as Oxford.  Then on the Autumn 100 we start out at Goring on leg 1 out to Little Wittenham from Goring and for leg 4 we turn around at Reading but this great book starts at the source and ends in London.  

The Thames Path is a national trail running for 184 miles from the river’s source at Thames Head near Kemble to the Thames Barrier in London.

The path begins, as the river does, in a meadow in the Cotswolds; its upper reaches lonely and wild. As the waters deepen the settlements along its banks begin to grow in both size and grandeur and, reaching Oxford, the solitude of the river slowly subsides and the trail becomes as much about historic towns, churches, abbeys and castles as it does the river.

Lechlade, Abingdon, Wallingford, Henley ... they all owe their location to the Thames, and different eras, when the river was a life source, a place of conflict, a boundary, a mode of transport and the provider of leisure, which, thankfully – for us, at least – it remains to this day.

Squeezing through the ancient Goring Gap, loomed over by the Chiltern Hills, you pass Runnymede, the site of the signing of Magna Carta, and Windsor Castle. Passing by so many ancient sites, this is as much a walk through history as an easy ramble along a river bank.

The route through London – particularly along the south bank – remains relatively countrified, at least as far as Putney, from which the approaching sights of Westminster and Tower Bridge offer vistas as impressive as any others along the river’s green and scenic upper reaches.

Leaving central London, the regenerated dockland areas of East London lure you to your journey’s end at the Thames Barrier and the conclusion of a most enjoyable and magnificently-varied riparian ramble, quite unlike any other in Britain.

Features

• Includes detailed walking maps: the largest-scale maps available – at just under 1:20,000 (8cm or 3-1/8 inches to 1 mile) these are bigger than even the most detailed maps currently available in the shops.
• Unique mapping features – walking times, directions, tricky junctions, places to stay, places to eat, points of interest. These are not general-purpose maps but fully edited maps drawn by walkers for walkers.
• Itineraries for all walkers – whether hiking the entire route or sampling highlights on day walks or short breaks. Detailed public transport information for all access points.
• Practical information for all budgets – what to see, where to eat, where to stay: B&Bs, hotels, campsites, bunkhouses, hostels and pubs.
• Overview mapping for stage sections (one per stage) in colour also including trail profiles.
• New colour introductory section