It is 7.30am. The sky is a pink-and-gold blur, and the breeze is invigorating. It’s a perfect day to walk from my London home to the source of the River Thames. I’m travelling light – phone, sandwich, water bottle – so I need nothing but a pair of capacious pockets. I have been walking the 185-mile Thames Path National Trail, with my friend Rhiannon, for more than four years. We do it bit by bit, a section at a time. No need to carry a heavy backpack. No need to book a hotel or pitch a tent. No need to use up weeks of precious holiday. No need to fret about whether we may fall out, or whether one of us will prove more ruggedly resilient than the other; nor any of the myriad factors that must be considered when planning a long-distance hike with a companion. And yes, we’re always back in time for a night in our own beds.
These are just some of the practical benefits of hiking a long-distance trail in bite-size chunks, which compensate for the extra time we spend on travelling and logistics. This morning, for example, I must catch a bus, a tube and then a train to get to the point where we finished six months previously. But by 9am I’m at Henley on-Thames, almost exactly as Rhiannon arrives from her Surrey home. We will walk for just over 12 miles, stopping anywhere we fancy – the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham and a Marlow church distracted us on the last stretch – eventually reaching Tilehurst, where we’ll catch different trains home.
